RWBY: Dust Eater
by Akitoscorpio
Summary: The Dust Eater Jaune Arc stands between two worlds. On one side is his people who are desperate and on the edge of extinction. On the other side is his duties as a student of Beacon. Can he find a way to balance out his responsibilities? Or will it come down like a house of cards. Also how can he make it through school when his partner is the daughter of his people's greatest foe?
1. Chapter 1

**Okay so as a first time writer here, I'm told this is where I would normally write some authors notes explaining what the fic is about. This is going to be another one of those "Jaune Arc, but with X power" stories that we see quite a bit in the fandom, however, in designing the alterations to Jaune I needed to do, I also realized that I had to work this new Jaune into the world of Rwby with a bit more care than I first realized. So hopefully I don't bore the hell out of anyone reading this too badly as this first chapter basically covers the events of Season 1 Episode 2, and as we know, there was not a whole lot of action in that episode. Also feel free to speculate what Mr Arc's new "secret" is as it will come up allot sooner than later.**

Jaune was not what you would call normal, oh sure on the outside he looked like a typical 17 year old young man who was currently puking into a trash can, but, looks, such as they are can be deceiving.

After cleaning himself up, noticing looks of two classmates, a talk blonde girl and a shorter girl with dark hair and wearing a red cloak, he checked his personal belongings, he didn't travel with much, just a couple extra sets of clothing, and his own personal weapons, a pair of collapsible katars with blades that curved inwards like the mandibles of a ant, great for stabbing, and great for tearing out Grimm guts when he pulled them out. He also checked on a box he needed more than anything, a small oak box that contained about a dozen yellow dust crystals, useful for empowering the secondary function of his weapon, but they had far more importance to the boy himself.

As he felt the final lurch of the airship come to a landing, he took a few moments to let his stomach settle, sent a silent prayer to the gods themselves and repacked his bag up as he stepped off the airship and out towards his future.

The first thing he would see stepping off the airship, was in his eyes breathtaking, a far cry from the small mining town he called home, Beacon was a truly amazing sight. Every aspect of the view he imagined, was designed to capture the awe and wonder of on boarding students such as himself, a truly massive school, almost city onto itself, surrounded by some of the greenest forests one would ever see. Jaune's mind raced with the possibilities he could find here, a chance to become a Huntsman, to be able to help support his family like his father and one of his many older sisters had already.

Jaune grimaced though, it wouldn't be easy to make it here, he didn't have a proper combat school education, only the training he gained from the older men in his village and his father, and his own natural talents, a larger than normal Aura pool, and his, well, other "special" talents that his kind had.

After taking a deep breath to push out his concerns for the time being, he started walking the path to the school, taking in the sights as he went, until he was startled by what sounded like a mining charge going off not to far from him. Knowing all to well what an explosion could do to miners who wore equipment to mitigate an accidental dust explosion he started to make his way there, fishing for his first aid kit in case someone needed help.

And that is when he saw _Her_ , one of them, a member of that accursed family, a _Schnee_ , oh was rather familiar with the Schnee Dust Company, and if a bitch from that house was going here, he was going to make it a personal mission statement to stay as far away from her as he could. He took a second to watch the altercation that was unfolding before him, it seems the girl with the red cloak must of knocked over some luggage. The Schnee girl was tearing into the younger girl over, well he didn't care, he figured this would be a good chance to rile up someone from that damn house and he was going to take it.

That plan made it about half a second before a young girl with black hair and wearing an equally black bow on top, walked over to the pair of girls, handing the Schnee girl back a vial of red dust. and said something he couldn't quite make out, but ending the altercation.

It was annoying that he couldn't get mixed in, but, Jaune decided that if he couldn't stir the pot with the Schnee girl, he'd at least help Red over there out.

He walked over to the Red hooded girl, offered a hand and said "Hey, I'm Jaune you okay?"

The young girl took Jaune's hand and let him pull her up with what he thought was a rather cute smile replying "Ruby"

The pair had a moment of silence while she dusted herself off "So anit you that guy that was throwing up on the airship?"

Jaune could only sigh internally, he was on campus for about 5 minutes and he already had an unflattering nickname.

* * *

A few moments of idle walking later Jaune and his new friend found themselves in a casual, but not unpleasant from Jaune's perspective

"Hey, all I'm saying, is that motion sickness is not all that uncommon of a problem" Jaune stammered attempting to defend himself

Ruby rubbed the back of her head sheepishly "Look I'm sorry, vomit boy was the first thing that came to mine"

Jaune smirked "Oh really, then maybe you wouldn't mind me calling you..." He thought for a moment "Crater face after tanking that dust fireball"

Ruby folded her arms while walking "Hey that explosion was an accident!"

Jaune smiled having her on the defensive for once in their chat "Well I'd prefer if you called me by my name, Jaune Arc, short, sweet, to the point, according to my dad women love it."

Ruby had to hold back a chuckle "Oh do they now?"

Jaune rubbed his neck "Well I haven't had to test that idea before..."

Ruby did find her self checking out the boys gear, he didn't seem to have any obvious weapons out on his person, and he was wearing only a light dull grey chest plate for body armor over a black hooded sweatshirt, he did have a pair of metal gauntlets that covered his forearms, but he didn't even seem to carry a sword on him, just his backpack, curious she pulled out her scythe and unfolded it.

"So I have this thing" as she rested it on her shoulder

Jaune's eyes went wide, he say the weapon folded up and strapped to her back, but he was legitimately impressed with the weapon completely folded out "I-Is that a scythe?"

Ruby's eyes lit up with a passion "Yeap! It's also a customize high impact sniper riffle!" As she held her precious weapon with pride

Jaune couldn't up but think 'Lovely the girl I befriended is some kind of weapon nut' before she looked at him asking "So Jaune, wheres your weapon?"

Jaune smile and flicked the wrists of the gauntlets he had on as the hooked blades of his Katar unfolded out of the sides of his gauntlets and faced forward "I got these bad boys right here"

Ruby's eyes lit up wide at the realization he was armed the whole time "That's cool.." she paused looking closely at them "Do they do anything else?"

Jaune held one up to her face so she could see them closer "Actually if you look closer, you can see on the tops of them these cartridges, there single use only but when I apply an electrical charge to them, they fire off a single burst of high velocity metallic flechette that could rip through at least a tree the size of the one over there. Trust me, they would ruin a Grim's day if I needed them too"

Ruby gawked "I have to introduce you to my sister then, she has a pair of weapons pretty close to this, do they have a name?"

Jaune looked puzzled for a few moments "Why would I... anyways where exactly are we going Red?"

Ruby's eyes went wide "I was following you..."|

Jaune sighed "Aw crap..."


	2. Chapter 2

**So I'll be honest, I was not thrilled with the idea of sending the first chapter out to try and stand on it's own, I kinda felt like I was sending it out to die, so I decided to sift through my notes and put up chapter 2, I felt like it would have been helpful to try and establish the dynamics for certain key players early and bring certain character changes to Jaune out in the open now, so it's not so jarring later. Obviously I haven't hit the story proper and I still have some plans that I absolutely want to do, but I want to see what you the reader think. I'm going to start diverging from canon now and were going to mix it up, sooo who do you think Jaune should Partnered up with? I have a sort of default person in mind already, but seeing as we have introduced most of the core cast save for Nora and Ren, it'll be interesting who you all think.**

First Impressions, Jaune was once told, always are the most important.

It didn't honestly take long for Jaune and his new found friend Ruby to find themselves at the main atrium where the headmaster gave his, in Jaune's opinion, fatalistic opening speech to the on boarding students there. He he was also introduced, in brief at least, to Ruby's sister Yang. He however only manged to exchange names before the Schnee girl arrived and he opted to make himself some watt scarce

So as far as first impressions went, well he was 1 for 2 in that department.

He would say the rest of the night went quietly enough, he didn't bring sleeping clothes, as the son of a miner, and one who frequently helped out in the mine, he was actually quite used to sleeping in his jeans. He had also made the choice to use his backpack as a pillow, not so much for the comfort it brought, but rather to make sure his dust box wasn't tampered with. This had the unintended effect of earning him a few odd glances from other would be students, a few who mistook him for some rustic outdoors man, but they would write it off as pretty unremarkable when they thought about it.

Which catches us up to the morning, where he was going to make his 4th and 5th first impression.

Initiation, he learned from the headmaster's speech the day before, was today, and he didn't really feel like he was going to need to take everything he came with out into the field with him. The men of his town had taught him the importance of traveling light when going into the field, a lesson they drilled into the young Jaune's almost daily. He also learned the importance of traveling with a full stomach and feeling fully energized, and with only the tools they needed. Reliance on one's own natural abilities was stressed, rather than a dependency on gadgets or heavy armors.

It was a lesson Jaune had taken to heart as he sought out his locker to store his bag in, but as luck would have it _she_ was there, the Schnee girl. He let out a silent curse, because of course she would be there in front of his locker, chatting up some red headed girl that, at least in Jaune's opinion, looked like she could hold her own in a fight at least.

Shooting daggers at the Schnee girl, he stood there silently for a few moments before clearing his throat loudly enough to get their attention.

Weiss casually glanced at the young man and with a haughty almost dismissive tone and allowed herself to speak in his direction but not really at him. "Excuse me I'm trying to have a conversation here, can it wait?" Before turning back to the Redhead and went back to idle banter

Jaune to his credit didn't attempt to do what he wanted to do and repaint the outside of his locker using her face as the paintbrush and in a cold tone stated as a fact "No it really can't, your leaning on my locker and some of us actually have places they need to be this morning, so if you'd kindly-" That was as far as he got before the Schnee girl laid into him

"Do you have any idea who I am, you can wait until I'm done here" she spoke jabbing him in the dull grey chest plate with her index finger as if to prove a point.

Jaune of course wouldn't let that slide and replied "Yeah I know who you are" before leaning in and put his hands on his sides "Your the idiot who thought it was a good idea to transport highly explosive red dust in unsealed glass jars and caused and explosion in front of the building yesterday with your sheer carelessness."

Weiss face scrunched her face up indignantly and was stunned silent for a moment before replying "I will have you know, that I am Weiss Schnee, of the Schnee family, my family mined the dust you use every day." Weiss raised her voice "And I won't listen to some nobody with worn equipment tell me how to properly store my family's product"

Jaune retorted "Great fascinating, happy for you, get the hell out of my way!" Jaune said physically shoving Weiss aside so he could get into the locker, he sparred a glance at the red haired girl who looked like she was one part happy to get out of the conversation and one part flabbergasted that anyone on the campus would talk to a member of the Schnee family the way he did.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what's your name?" The redhead finally spoke up

Jaune unloading his backpack and putting his field kit into a pouch on his belt, put on his best smile and answered "Jaune arc, and would you mind telling me your name?"

The Redhead looked surprised that Jaune even had to ask and was about to answer him when Weiss, putting on a face as if she was trying to look offended on the Redhead's behalf "What backwater did you crawl out of if you don't even know who Pyrrha Nikos is?"

Jaune, not even turning to look at Weiss stated over his shoulder dismissively "No one was talking to you rich girl, why don't you go find some Faunus to oppress or whatever the hell your family does." Looking back at Pyrrha he said in generally much more polite tone "I apologize for that, I'm from the sticks and I don't tend to follow local celebrities much" Jaune found himself scratching the back of his neck while he talked.

Weiss stormed off in a huff without saying another word, so at least in Jaune's eyes he was officially 2 for 3 as far as making the desired first impression.

Pyrrha taking guarded stance when looking at Jaune questioned "Your really not a fan of the Schnee family are you?"

Jaune waived it off "Honestly, I don't really care much for people who try to use their status to bully others into respecting them, where I'm from respect is earned with hard work and effort"

Pyrrha smiled and patted Jaune on the shoulder as she walk off "Well Jaune, I can honestly respect that, but it's not smart to get under someone like that's skin. She's going to get a following pretty quick, and you'll be surprised how quickly those followers will try to white knight for someone they barely know out of idol worship."

Jaune raised an eyebrow "That almost sounded like you were speaking from personal experience, The white haired brat certainly tried to leap to your defense pretty quick."

Pyrrha smiled and said walking away "I'm really not all that special, I just won a couple tournaments here and there, hopefully I'll see you around Jaune"

Jaune smiled and said softly to himself "looks like i'm 3 for 4"

* * *

"For years you have trained to be warriors" Headmaster Ozpin stated plainly "And now you will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest"

Jaune did not like where this was going... he looked out over the ridge they had assembled on into the woods, he knew, from past experience at least, that forests hid the Grimm.

The blonde woman Jaune learned was named Glynda followed up with "Now I know you all heard rumors about the assignment of teams" Looking over the group standing there. "Well allow us to put an end to your confusion"

Jaune looked out into the woods again while Glynda spoke "Each of you will be given teammates... Today..."

Jaune really did not like where this was going

Ozpin continued for Glynda "These teammate will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, So it is in your best interest to be pair with someone with whom you can work well."

Jaune saw Ruby squirm uncomfortably while Ozpin said his spiel.

Ozpin kept talking "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after you land will be your partner for the next 4 years"

Jaune didn't like the idea of that one second, he had secrets, he has plans that could be utterly wreaked by the wrong teammate. If he had to go through this whole initiation with his eyes closed, that would be preferable than to end up with an incompatible partner. he could see out of the corner of his eye that Ruby felt the same way, while Weiss eyeballed the nearby Pyrrha. 'Typical Schnee bullshit' he mused, 'Always looking for a way to come out on top, no mater who gets trampled in the process'.

Lost in thought he didn't listen closely to the rest of Ozpin's briefing.

Ozpin asked if there were any questions, Jaune wanted to vocalize several, but was cut off as the Headmaster demanded everyone present to take positions. It was only then, that Jaune noticed that he was standing on a launch pad.

Jaune looked down and muttered "Aw crap."

* * *

 **So a quick comment on one part of the story, The dust Jar line Jaune, When I sat down and re-watched a few episodes to get some notes down for the first few chapters, it really struck me as peculiar that someone like Weiss would actually keep Dust in a glass Jar with a cork on it, and one that was clearly unsealed if her shaking it let enough dust out to cause Ruby to be able to sneeze and detonate it. I know it was simple sight gag and a bit of early installment weirdness, but the fact that Torchwick's goons were using what looked like state of the art steel canisters to store stolen dust in, it struck me as particularly funny that Weiss would use a breakable glass bottle to store what was basically Nitroglycerin powder in. I felt like if Jaune's family worked were dust miners, then they would in fact know how to properly store dust safely, and Jaune would have a healthy respect for the ability of dust to ruin your week when mishandled.**


	3. Chapter 3

**So here begins the story proper, not to mention my third update in 2 days. RWBY canon came here to die on the alter of yet another AU as I diverge from canon rather quickly as you will all see. Also you'll get a bit of a look at this AU!Jaune's abilities, even if it's only in passing. I do hope I don't somehow cause Jaune to come off as overpowered as that's not really my intention. I mean I did I did put this Fanfic down as a Drama and Suspense story, so it wouldn't serve to have a boring invincible version of Jaune that I've seen a few times in the past. I always like stories where the Protagonist gets his ass kicked in before he pulls off a big win, so expect to see that allot in this story, assuming the good guys are supposed to win that is.**

It's not everyday one finds themselves in Jaune's current predicament, having just been hurled from a catapult in the general direction of a large forest, and now Jaune found himself, for maybe the third time this morning alone questioning the idea of becoming a huntsmen.

'Okay Jaune, you got maybe a minute tops before you end up in the tree's lets think of a plan here.' his own brain screamed at him while some rather uncomfortable words such as "Compound fracture" and "Terminal velocity" flashed in his mind. 'Okay, what did dad and the elders teach us about this situation...' Jaune's thought as he continued to be hurled in the general direction of what could be best seen as a pain crippling injury, and a worst impalement on a tree limb..

After Jaune spent several costly seconds trying to remember any helpful fatherly advice. The only answer he could recall was his father telling him in no uncertain terms "Don't" in response to his fine mess he was in. Now realizing the futility of trying to use the advice of a man who spent his adult life working in a hole in the ground an attempt to find a way to properly survive his current situation, his mind started to focus on assessing the situation situation. He tried to eyeball his air speed, how far away was he from the tree line, and who the fuck was screaming "Woo hoo" off in the distance.

Jaune tried to buy himself a few extra seconds and lower his velocity by flattening out into the wind and slowing himself down. The next thought to cross through his head was 'Okay good, that's a good first step, now how are we going to keep from shattering something against a tree limb on the way down?". As he panned his head around to try and weigh the situation while he plummeted screaming at the earth, he noticed he could no longer see the other students, as he had drifted off from the pack while weighing his options. That, in his mind, opened up several useful options for him to use.

Jaune decided that if he was flying solo, by a loose definition of the term, he could afford to cut loose a bit. Jaune started by flexing his left arm and focusing his aura into the limb, his arm made a violent transformation, starting with an increase in muscle mass that tore the sleeve off his sweater revealing a set of scales that had formed up to his upper forearm and a patch of silver fur growing around his forearm underneath his still intact gauntlet finally leading to a clawed left hand of a decisively reptilian nature. Jaune's eyes then flashed yellow briefly as he focused aura into his vision to to spot a branch that looked sturdy enough to grab with his enhanced arm and hopefully break his fall.

As he dipped below the treeline, he reached out raking a passing tree with his claws to slow his decent before grabbing a tree limb that would stop his fall and allow him to climb down the tree. He latched on to the branch with a grunt hoping that the speed he was traveling wouldn't dislocate his shoulder or break something. His eyes then shot wide when he did hear a snapping sound as the so called "Sturdy branch" broke off from the force of Jaune grabbing onto it, causing Jaune to continue on a rather ungraceful decent to the ground below.

* * *

Jaune didn't know how long he laid there unconscious, the last thing he remembered before hitting the ground was his own voice screaming profanities as he tumbled into a tree before hitting the ground. He then sat up, his arm back into it's normal state and took stock of the situation.

First he checked himself out, okay he was sore, but his wounds didn't seem too bad for starters. He put a hand up to his head, he didn't feel any signs of a concussion at the very least. As he looked around his his eyes shot wide as he saw himself laying entirely to close to the edge of a deep cliff, he also noticed the the trail of claw marks in the dirt he dug while trying to stop himself from going over the edge. Jaune then checked out his chest and limbs knocking on his armored chest plate which looked none the worse for wear. Noting that this probably kept him from suffering any broken ribs, he with a sense of satisfaction in it's performance knocked gently on the breast plate he wore. He then noted that the left sleeve on his sweater was ruined from him transforming his arm. A shame really as he really liked that Pumpkin Pete hoodie his sister gave him. He took a second and tore off the loose fabric shreds of the sleeve and noticed a light but painful scrape on his upper arm that would need cleaned up later.

Jaune checked his Scroll while saying "Okay so where the hell did I land" to himself. The scroll didn't exactly give him great news, he landed at the far side of the forest from where he was supposed to start traveling to. "Damn" He muttered looking around, "looks like I need to start walking then". As he stood up he grabbed a handful of dirt and rubbed it on his arm to mask the scent of his blood, knowing that certain breeds of Grimm would be able to track him by the scene and started making his way deeper into the woods to try and find anyone else. He knew that it would pay to find other students for the strength in numbers he needed to remove the edge the Grim certainly had that on him right now since he was alone.

He didn't make it more than a few hundred feet when he would be attacked by his first Grim. It was both a relief and a deep cause for concern that it was just a Beowulf, a 6 foot tall semi bipedal black wolf with white skull markings on it's face. It was a blessing because this would be one of the easier types of Grimm he could encounter, but also a concern because he would normally find these things in packs. The Grimm itself got the Jump on Jaune leaping out from the tall bushes directly at him forcing Jaune into a roll to evade a quick and messy evisceration.

As Jaune sized up the beast he found himself facing, he flicked his wrists causing the blades of his Katars to pop out as he took a trained stance hand to hand stance.

"Okay big guy, we don't need to do this, you back off and so will I, we don-" Jaune found himself cut off as the beast rushed him with a wild heavy swing of it's clawed right arm, Jaune found himself forced to deflect the strike with his left forearm, striking the creatures wrist to try and knock the swing off course. When that that succeeded and the creature found itself flat footed Jaune closed the distance between him and the Grimm and uppercutting the creature on the bottom of it's head shoving the Katar blades on his right arm directly into it's skull and into the creatures brain.

Jaune quickly ripped the blades out of the creature and stepped aside before it's heavy corpse fell on top of him, he knew that the body would dissolve eventually, but he didn't want to be under it when it's pack-mates showed up. He then quickly while keeping a frantic eye out for other Grimm, cleaned the Grimm blood off his weapon with some more dirt. He remembered that he was taught by a few the village defenders back home that Grimm would be drawn to the scent of a fallen Grim's blood like an ants death scent.

Satisfied for now that he wasn't about to be jumped by an entire pack, he decided to not push his own luck and started to quickly jog away from the body. 'Well if nothing else this has been an eventual morning' he thought, followed by a nervous chuckle at his own joke. His arm was sore from the force of having to block the Grim's strike, his body ached from the fall, and he had a sneaking suspicion that he used a bit more aura than he first thought. Jaune just hoped that the rest of this adventure he found himself in would be less eventful.

* * *

Roughly thirty minutes later Jaune had manged to cover a considerable amount of distance and was taking a swig from the water bottle that he brought with him when he first heard it. Someone was screaming out for help not far from him!

"Shit where was that!" Jaune asked himself as he tried to keep low and try to locate the direction of the screams. "Okay focus, use what you learned back home and relax" Jaune told himself as he tried to feel out the direction of the sound when a thought crossed his head 'Wait, i'm in a forest full of students armed with dust weapons, maybe if the winds are going to be nicer than the tree's I can smell the direction the screams came from from the expended dust in the air from the battle.'

Jaune stood up and started to try and open up his senses and using his enhanced sense of smell. He closed his eyes to see if he could pick up traces of dust in the wind. His eyes shot wide open when he found that he could smell dust in the breeze, licking his finger and holding it up, he got a general idea what direction the wind was coming from and started sprinting in the direction.

It didn't take long till following the sounds of screams and roars of a Grimm to come across the source of the sound. He didn't take a close look at the hunter in need, but he took note of the unusually large Ursa attacking them. They had the poor fool backed against a tree and disarmed.

He focused on the target and not the girl, just as the Ursa was swinging down with a skull crushing strike that would surely kill his fellow student, Jaune rushed in leaping at the creatures swinging arm and stabbed into it with the Katar blades on his left arm getting the blades dug in deep and using his own body weight to force the monster off balance.

The Ursa rewarded Jaune's efforts by whipping it's arm at the ground causing Jaune to dislodge from the creatures limb, and for the second time in a couple hours, find himself slammed into the ground with surprising force and gasping for breath as the very air was knocked out of his lungs the the impact.

Jaune barely had time to roll out of the way as the Ursa tried to slam his foot down on the young hunters head. The other student had apparently took advantage of the situation and grabbed their lost weapon and started to fight back again as a flash of ice dust struck the back of the Ursa causing painful looking shards of Ice to form in it's back.

"Good call!" Jaune shouted with out looking at who the student was before he got up into a sprint. Jaune at the last moment hit the ground sliding in between the legs of the unbalanced Ursa and sliced at the ankles of it's hind legs causing it to let out a deafening roar as it toppled over on to it's stomach.

Jaune turned to face the hunter shouting "Finish it off before it stands up!" Only to see that the other student had was already standing on top of it stabbing a long slender blade into it's throat. The Ursa let out a gurgle as black Grimm blood flowed out of it's open mouth.

Jaune dragged himself to his feet looking at the silver haired girl, a little worse for wear, filthy with dirt and panting uncontrollably with a look of panic and terror painted on her face, looking back at him.

Jaune had to shake the shocked expression off his face before was able to speak in a tone that barely concealed his disappointment "Weiss Schnee?"

Weiss took a second to compose himself "You! Oh no I am not getting stuck with you for the next 4 years." She points off into the woods "You go that way, I'll go the other way and we'll pretend we did-"

"Jaune! Weiss! Are you both okay?!" A third voice shouted out as someone joined the conversation. Weiss and Jaune both turned to face the speaker, to see Ruby and Pyrrha both jogging into the clearing at the same time.

Jaune looked back at Weiss, the absolute last person he ever in all of Remnant wanted to be partnered up with, someone who he was seconds away from vanishing into the woods to avoid being seen with, as she was looking at him with a similar look on her face. Jaune then found himself hearing a faint buzzing above him as he looked up to see a small metallic object floating around them with what looked like a camera aimed at the group.

"Aw Crap" He said to himself.

 **Edited from a previous version, because I apparently and god awful at proofreading before uploading.**


	4. Chapter 4

**So before I post chapter 4, I wanted to leave a couple notes. So if you go back to Chapter 3 you might see that I revised it quite a bit, as the grammar on that particular chapter was rather horrid even for my own standards. I didn't make any story changes to it, but it you want to see a cleaner version of the chapter, it's there.**

 **Also, I just wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone that's read this so far, especially those of you that were kind enough to drop a review. (Especially** **merendinoemiliano who has left a review of every chapter so far). It does mean a lot to me to see people take an interest in this story and honestly, it gives me that push to want to keep working on it. Don't be afraid to call me out if I'm making some kind of mistake or if something didn't make sense. I can always work in an explanation into the next chapter or revise the existing chapter for it to make better sense if I need to. But I won't know if you don't tell me. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter, and because I do work full time this one took a couple days to write up. I'll see about working on chapter 5 over the next couple days as well but I have my kids and my job to consider.**

Right now if you were to ask Jaune how he was feeling, he'd tell you that, all things considered, he was having a rather crappy morning. The scrape on his arm throbbed. His body suffered from aches and pains from being slammed around. His sweater was ruined. Now he he's trying to come to terms with the reality that he was officially teamed up for the next four years with Weiss Schnee, a huntsmen in training that would likely attempt to murder him where he stood, if she had any idea what he really was, and was now looking at him while speaking.

"Are you paying attention!?" Weiss spoke. The answer was no, he really had not been paying attention, but she carried on either way "It's simple, all of you follow my lead, and I'll lead us all to the Forest Temple to gather the relics we were all sent here to collect and we can leave this damned place!"

Weiss was clearly not in a great mood. Jaune wondered if it was because of the earlier dressing down he gave her, or simply the fact he just saved her from a violent death by Ursa mauling. He supposed however it didn't much matter at the moment. She turned to him and spoke at him in a demanding tone of voice. "As for you, as far as I'm concerned you will do exactly what I tell you. I will not have some boy from a backwater mining town holding me back!"

Jaune wanted to talk back, he wasn't in the mood to listen to her demands, or to put up with her attitude at the moment, but he had to admit that he was not a solider, particularly well educated, or could demand attention like she or Pyrrha could.

"Alright" Jaune said "For now, your the boss, but do you mind if I recommend at least that I scout ahead since I'm carrying the least gear and make the least noise." Jaune pointed at Pyrrha with his thumb "Might not be a bad idea to have her cover our rear flank as well from ambush since she's the most heavily armored of us all. But really it's up to you boss."

Weiss narrowed her eyes and looked at the ragtag party she found herself part of, she couldn't fault Jaune on his suggestions, they were if nothing else, not completely worthless in her eyes. "I'll allow it, but don't go biting off more than you can chew."

Jaune scoffed at the notion "Don't worry, this isn't my first rodeo Snowflake."

Pyrrha spoke up next "Actually i'll second Jaune's suggestion, I really think that you and Ruby here could best serve covering us with her riffle in the center while you would be able to cover her with your rapier"

As Pyrrha and Weiss started to talk strategy Jaune started to tune out the pair as they kept overthinking about their formation and battle tactics. It was then he noticed Ruby had inched over next to him and was looking at him with some concern "Jaune, what happened to your arm?"

Jaune glanced down at his arm having forgotten the wound itself and bashfully answered scratching the back of his neck with his uninjured right arm. "Oh it's nothing, I just had a bit of a rough landing, and then there was this thing with a Beowolf, nothing serious"

Ruby folded her arms and gave Jaune a disappointed look "Nothing serious? Jaune were pretty far out from anyone that could patch us up if we get hurt out here, let me at least bandage your arm up okay?" Ruby silver met his is a pleading looking in them.

Jaune complied with her and held his arm out while she wrapped a bandage around the scrape. His aura would kick in and heal it soon enough, but it wouldn't be able to happen until they were clear of danger and was able to relax for a bit. At one point while Ruby worked at cleaning and dressing his arm, he could have sworn that he heard Ruby mutter something about it being a waste of a perfectly good Pumpkin Pete hoodie, which put a smile on his face.

Weiss and Pyrrha had apparently finished finally talking shop as Weiss started to shout out "Okay you two lets get marching or we'll never make it to the finish line!". Weiss then pointed ahead looking at Jaune "Get a move on, you wanted to take point after all!"

As Jaune started walking off he stopped for a second and turned to face Weiss saying "Oh uhh, don't forget to clean the Grimm blood off your weapon or your going to bring something bigger than an Ursa down on us". Jaune then turned around smirking as he at least got the last word in before walking off a few meters ahead of the group. Secretly, he had hope he would be able to at least lead the team away from any obvious Grimm Nests they couldn't handle.

* * *

Some time later, they came across a cave...

"There is no god damn way I'm stepping into that Cave." Jaune stated staring at the mouth of a cave the group had come across.

"Part of our mission was to destroy any Grimm we encountered" Weiss stated with authority. "Besides you said you lived in a mining town you should be used to this" Weiss said flippantly in reply.

Jaune turned and looked at Ruby and Pyrrha, while Pyrrha seemed uncertain and didn't speak, Ruby chimed in "I mean, she is right Jaune, that is exactly what the headmaster said."

Jaune folded his arms shooting a hard gaze as his red cloaked friend "Well the Headmaster probably never had to contend with a _Dreadwyrm_ before!"

Weiss threw her arms up in annoyance "Okay Jaune, Enlighten us, what is this so called _Dreadwyrm_ your so scared of"

Jaune turned on his heels stepping towards Weiss as he spoke "Why thank you for asking. Dreadwyrms are a type of burrowing Grimm that have skin as hard as diamonds, can grow up to 12 meters in length hunt by vibration we make by moving, and can _consume an adult male_ with a mouth full of a half dozen consecutive rows of serrated teeth in a single bite!" Jaune was now in Weiss's face as she found herself forced to leaned back "They are also the source of of some particularity gruesome childhood nightmares of mine that i'm not in the mood to relive thank you very much!"

Ruby laughed a bit at Jaune's antics "Come on, if their was anything like that the school would know about it. I bet the worse we can expect is to find a Beowolf den, and we can handle that at least!"

Jaune sighed openly as he realized he was outvoted on the issue and held up a single finger before voicing his demands "Fine I'll check it out, but on the condition that none of you go in with me, for any reason!"

Everyone even Weiss was taken back by that request. Weiss then protested loudly "Are you serious, were all trained students, and unlike you, we all went to a combat school before coming here!"

Jaune pointed at her raising his voice "We all passed the entry exams to be here Weiss, but I'm the only one properly equipped for fighting in a cave."

Jaune pointed at Ruby "She can't swing that scythe in there, and her gun would deafen us if she fired it"

He then pointed at Pyrrha "Her spear might work, but her armor would make to much noise in there and give us away in the dark because of the shine on it."

He finally pointed at Weiss "And your not even wearing armor, Your smart enough to know that you can't rely on your agility inside of there. Not to mention the fact that your wearing _high-heels_ for fucks sake."

Jaune then pulled flashlight with a strap that he could use to wear the lamp on his head "Also, I'm the only one here with a flashlight. Trust me Weiss, I know how to fight in a cave." With that he turned and started to walk towards the cave entrance switching the lamp on.

As Jaune walked through the darkness of the cave, he made sure to take in every sight he could, made extra sure he was checking out every dark spot and every shadow to make sure it wasn't a fork in the cave, he got a good hundred feet into the cave when his foot hit a small puddle that made him stop. Jaune then quickly covered the light on his head and leaned against the wall. Thoughts raced in his head realizing that this was an otherwise dry cave and he was in far to deep in for this to be rainwater. He ran a quiet and cautious hand along the wall near him and touched the roof where he could.

The fact Jaune was touching dry stone in both cases meant only one thing, reluctantly he uncovered the light as he started to hear a hissing sound.

* * *

The first thing the girls saw was Jaune rushing out of the cave before something caught him on the back causing him to loose his footing and slide to a stop near the rest of the team. Jaune in a slight fit of panic waved the group back towards the trees as he started to scramble back to his feet and run with them for cover. They had just barely made it back to the treeline when the mouth of the cave _Exploded outward_ and Jaune's suspicions proved true.

The thing was easily a good 4 Meters long. It's body is covered in an almost bullet proof black carapace, One could easily see the bone plates covering it's torso, bleached bone white and hardened enough that could shrug off an artillery strike. They would have to be blind to not see the two pincer arms that could _Crush them in half_ and it's long striking tail that ended in a golden stinger. A Stinger that contained a poison that could end a mans life in screaming horrible agony as it _melted their insides._ Or at least it would, if not for the the fact that the poison also contained a Neurotoxin that could kill them by stopping their heart so fast that they would be dead before their body hit the ground, Even with a huntsmen's level of Aura.

It was a creature that was best known for being the very embodiment of death for even a full team of unprepared seasoned hunters. It could wipe whole villages out by itself. It's body told of a history of bloody victory with every scar on it's shell. Even it's very name telegraphs the end of all life it encounters.

The Party had encountered the _Deathstalker._


	5. Chapter 5

**So here's the next chapter, a day early and under budget. I know I said this would have taken me a couple evenings to write up, but the good old insomnia hit last night like a truck and I was able to bang out the rough draft. Seeing as the hard part was done I cleaned it up this morning and pushed it out the door. So this one came in pretty long actually, it was at 2,755 words before started typing up these author notes. But this was the first real threat the hero's fought in the series so I figured I had to damn well make sure I did it justice. I did listen to the review saying that I needed to scale Jaune back a bit from coming off as a know it all, and I hope that this and the next planed chapter go a long way towards showing that. Well no I really never planed on Jaune to be a the perfect Marty Stu character that sometimes comes out of these stories.**

 **If anyone wants to listen to some good fighting music to this chapter or at least wants to know what I was listening to while writting this chapter up. look up the song Uncontrollable featuring Mika Kobayashi from the Xenoblade Chronicles X soundtrack, it's a good song in general and it's the track that plays while your party is fighting giant ass monsters, so I felt it fit this chapter at least. Since I have to leave for work I'll leave the notes here as is and I hope you all enjoy what was to me at least, the most chapter to write to date.**

It wouldn't be a lie to right now to say that Jaune was more terrified of what he was seeing than he has ever been in his life. He looked to his left seeing Weiss frozen in place in terror, he looked to his right and saw Ruby backing up cautiously with Pyrrha. He himself couldn't compose a single thought as to what they should be doing right now as he looked back at the Deathstalker staring down at the group.

He was not ready for this, none of them were.

Weiss spoke first, her voice cracking in fear "I-I'm open to suggestions right now, anyone have a plan?"

Jaune put a hand on Weiss's shoulder and started walking them back with Ruby and Pyrrha "I got nothing right now... Ruby? Pyrrha? What do two got?"

Ruby seemed to rally mentally first "We can't out run it, we have to take it out, if we can-"

Pyrrha's fear got the better of her in a different way. She charged in first leading with her shield hoping to take it out with a single swift thrust of her spear. Ruby followed in to support her partner, Weiss followed third with reckless abandon and without a plan, Jaune just followed to make sure she didn't get herself killed in the process.

None of them accounted for the creatures speed, they never had a chance to. Before they knew it, the Deathstalker swung it's massive pincer claw like a club at the approaching Pyrrha. Even though she was able to block the strike with her shield, the beasts arm still had the severe weight advantage, thus why she was sent flying hard into a tree monetarily stunning her.

Ruby was next, she tried to slice off the arm with her scythe, but was forced to attempt to dodge the Grimm's lethal stinger. The Grimm's tail still pinned Ruby by her cloak to the ground leaving her wide opening to be crushed by the creatures arm. she would have been it if Weiss didn't get to her first slicing Ruby's cloak with her Rapier and enabling Ruby to roll clear of the Grimm's downward strike.

Seconds later Jaune was barely able to tackle Weiss clear of the Death Stalkers other arm before the pair was crushed. Even still Jaune still took a glancing strike from the claw that sent him flying into a large tree.

Ruby screamed out "This isn't working!" Weiss replied "I noticed that, everyone close your eyes!"

Everyone managed to shut their eyes just as Weiss channeled Thunder Dust through her sword in front of the creatures eyes and let out brilliant flash of light, followed by a loud bang that stunned and blinded the Deathstalker. Weiss grabbed Ruby and dragged her behind the large oak tree that Jaune and Pyrrha landed near.

Once the group was together again they beat a hasty retreat to regroup and plan. They only manged to get a few hundred feet before the Deathstalker was able recover and start to hunt the group again.

Jaune leaned against a tree holding his side where he felt something crack and said between breathes "Weiss, thanks for that."

Weiss nodded between breathes herself smiling at him "Yeah, right back at you, for... well a lot today"

Jaune looked at Pyrrha asking "You alright?" Pyrrha was holding her shield arm as she looked at them showing signs of being clearly in pain "Yeah, I'll be fine Jaune, my arm's sore from blocking that strike... I'm sorry I shouldn't have rushed it."

Ruby, the only one who was unharmed by the charge put a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder "Don't worry about it." She smiled at her "If we were all experts at Grimm hunting we wouldn't be at school right?"

Something about the way she said it lifted the teams spirits and calmed the group down quite a bit. They could hear the Deathstalker thrashing about nearby, and it was getting closer. Jaune tried to refocus the group "Anyone have any bright ideas? I don't think my weapons will be doing much to that thing."

Ruby spoke up "You have those flechette launchers right? The one you told me about before the headmaster's speech? You said they could punch through armor easily so you should be able to hurt the monster with them." Her face lit up with a glimmer of hope at the idea

Jaune shook his head "Maybe, but I can't hit the damn thing with it moving at the speed it's going. I'd be picked off while trying, not to mention I'd have to be point blank for them to be any good, and I can't reload in the field easily. I'd only have one shot with them."

Pyrrha spoke up, punching the palm of her hand "We need to get rid of that damn tail, that's it's main form of attack right now!"

Weiss looked directly of Pyrrha "Okay so how to we do that?"

Ruby smiled wide "My baby here could take it's tail off no problem if we could somehow get it to stop moving so much."

Jaune spoke up "Well I can keep the tail busy, but we need to do something about the claws."

Pyrrha and Weiss exchanged glances smirking confidently at each as they formed an unspoken plan between the pair of them. Pyrrha then spoke up "Leave that to us, you just make sure you don't get stung by that thing"

Jaune shook his head "I can't make any promises, but I'll try"

Ruby reached over and smacked Jaune upside the head "No! If your not one hundred percent sure you can keep from being stung by that tail, then you let us know now, I won't any of us go out there unless we are sure we can do our parts!"

Jaune's face softened looking at her "You just make sure your 'baby' there can perform out there okay?"

The four of them exchanged confident glances at each other. However none of them could shake the feeling that something could all too easily go wrong here. The sounds of the Deathstalker knocking over trees and thrashing it's way though the forest grew louder Jaune found himself swallowing hard and fighting a wave of nausea back as fear threatened to overwhelm him. His eyes shot over to Weiss who was looking at him back. He still couldn't use the full limits of his abilities. Not here, not in front of her.

Jaune's mind drifted to the words of his father briefly "There are so few of us left now, we used to number in the thousands, but now the 500 of us here in this village are all that remains of us. If you must reveal what you are to others, you had better make damn sure they can be trusted!"

He had seven sister at home, a mother, friends, an entire community he has to protect. He hopes one day he could trust at least Ruby and Pyrrha with his secret, but for now, he'll make due with what he has.

Jaune spoke up "Okay, I'll be the bait." He turned at Ruby "Try to get behind it without it seeing you" Jaune then looked at Pyrrha and Weiss "Once it's focused on me, hit it's claws and nail it to the ground however you can. If we can pull this off we just might survive this!"

The team all shared a meaningful nod before Jaune got up and started running into the clearing the Deathstalker just entered shouting a war-cry the whole way. The Deathstalker turned and faced what it believes to be it's first victim. As Jaune closed the gap, his eyes started to glow enhancing his sight once again. When the Death stalker started to strike with it's tail, he rolled out of it's way to evade it narrowing avoided it by a few centimeters at the most.

Jaune was on his feet before the Deathstalker could pull it's stinger out of the dirt, the Deathstalker continued to try to live up to it's name striking repeatedly at Jaune with it's tail with a speed that almost defied imagination. While Jaune was able repeatedly sidestep the stinger, each time he manged to do so he knew the window for evading the deadly strikes was closing fast.

Jaune swore under his breath as one strike cut so close that it edged off his chest armor "Goddammit, hurry the hell up ladies!"

It was them that Pyrrha attacked! The creature was so focused on skewering Jaune that it stopped moving one arm entirely, Pyrrha capitalized on the opening leaping from a nearby tree dropping down on top of and putting her whole body weight into a single strike in between the armored plates of the Grimm's left "Wrist" skewering through it and staking if firmly into the ground. Pyrrha then locked her spear in place with her Polarity Semblance to make goddamn sure that arm wasn't going anywhere.

Jaune and Pyrrha were both then forced to cover their ears as the Deathstalker let out a truly ear piercing screech. Jaune was only able to get one ear covered in time and actually felt blood start trickle out of his uncovered ear. Jaune found himself forced into a disoriented stupor for a split second.

Jaune couldn't hear what Pyrrha was screaming at him, but he saw the tail rear up to strike down on him when he felt something push him out of the way by his armor a mere second before the creature would have impaled him, he spared a glance at Pyrrha who shot him a smile.

"I owe you one for that" Jaune yelled out slightly louder than what was needed. Jaune then looked up a something out of the corner of his eye and saw Weiss jumping out of the treeline while forming a massive icicle using her rapier. As he watched her floating in the air for what seemed like and eternity, he noticed the gylphs under her feet that was enabling her "flight". Jaune then also noticed a second glyph that was forming behind the icicle just moments before she launched the frozen lance directly at the Deathstalker, striking and impaling it through it's right claw and deep into the ground.

Jaune knew he had to do his part now and rushed in at the stinger as it was striking down on him, he only had one chance to do this, he knew he had to get behind it otherwise it would impale him through his armor and kill him instantly.

Jaune narrowly tilted his body to the left at the last possible second before the Deathstalker impaled it's tail into the earth getting it stuck in the ground. It gave Jaune the few precious seconds he needed for him to grab onto the tail with both arms and channel an electric shock through the palms of his hands directly into the Deathstalker's tail. Acting like high powered taser and causing all the muscles in the Grimm's lethal appendage to seize and lock up.

Ruby was able to finally make her appearance, in a flash of red and a trail of rose pedals, Ruby was behind it, hooking her scythe around the front of the Deathstalker's tail, and putting one of her combat boots on the Deathstalker to brace, she Jerked the lever action of her riffle back, and fired it while channeling her semblance into increasing the speed in which she was pushed back, neatly pulling the scythe clean through the muscles of the tails and severing it's like it was made of wet tissue paper

The Deathstalker let out a tremendous roar, Jaune not even bothering to cover his ears took advantage of the Deathstalker's agony, flicked his wrists, causing the blades of his Katars to separate and the twin flechette launchers to spring forward, he jammed both barrels of the launchers into the creatures eyes and channeling his electric power into the launchers, fired them both into the face of the Deathstalker, sending high velocity metal shards through the creatures eyes and pulverizing the Grimm's head from within!

It was almost 5 minutes before the dazed and disoriented team managed to recover from the death screams of the death stalker, half due to needing to recover from the noise, and the rest to allow it to sink in that they actually managed to kill the Deathstalker. All of them were exhausted, covered in bruises, dirt, and blood a fair amount of it belonging to the now slain Deathstalker.

Ruby started to laugh first, it was an infectious laugh that got all the others joining with her. They had won their first real battle as a Team. Even Jaune had to admit, looking at Weiss with a grin, that they all made a pretty good team out there.

* * *

It was about 45 minutes later when the team finally made it to the forest temple. They didn't get 4 steps into it when Ruby was all but tackle-hugged by a Rather concerned sister screaming her name.

"Yang, you guys made it here already?" Ruby gasped out when Yang's vice like grip loosened up a bit

Yang looked her sister over with concern "You have no idea, I linked up with my new partner Blake and two other students named Ren and Nora and, your not going to believe this shit, but we actually had to kill a Nevermore to get here! Can you believe that?!"

Jaune watched the sisters interact in silence and smiling, he felt a nudge from Weiss who looked up at the taller boy "You want to tell them or should I?"

Jaune shook his head "Oh of course I do, but as the self proclaimed party leader, the bragging rights belong to you"

Weiss playfully elbowed Jaune "Well if you insist partner" as she shouted out to Ruby "Hey, Tell them about the Deathstalker we ran into!"

Nora with a look of excitement and over energetic glee chimed in "You guys fought a freaking Deathstalker out there!?" Nora turned to Ren "Why didn't we get to fight a Deathstalker? That's not fair!"

Ren folded his arms and looked at his own partner "Was the Nevermore not enough for you?"

Jaune pointed at the relics on the pedestals near by "Looks like there is only two relics left, you go ahead and pick one and we'll let Ruby and Pyrrha have the other" Weiss, walked over and grabbed one of the two remaining chess pieces as Jaune watched her...

Jaune's thoughts turned moody however when he realized that he had to remind himself that she was still a Schnee, and she was still probably the largest threat to his well being in this entire school. As Weiss returned she seemed to pick up on his sudden mood shift "Hey you alright Cave-boy?" Jaune shook it off "Yeah I'm just getting worn out Snowflake."

The answer seemed to satisfy Weiss as Yang walked over putting an arm around Jaune's shoulder "Aw, cute, you already have pet names for each other" She turns and whispers into Jaune's ear as he started to blush from embarrassment "Don't forget to invite me to the wedding okay?"

Jaune was about to protest but Weiss beat him to it "That's enough of that, Cave-boy here may have proved himself to be worthy teammate out there today, but he has a long way to go before I would consider him a potential suitor." Weiss backpedaled quickly after realizing what she said with an embarrassed blush "Of course I have a _bsolutely no interest_ in dating anyone here, let alone my own partner!"

Yang chuckled it off with a "whatever" as the Bullheads came into view to collect them.

Jaune's last thoughts before he would get ready to board the aircraft, besides hoping he wouldn't throw up again was 'If this is the schools idea of initiation, I don't want to know what their idea of midterms are going to be like."


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't have a whole lot to say about this chapter, except that it proved to be surprisingly difficult to put down on paper for some reason. It's pretty easy to write dialog for this group, I'm finding myself leaning on some "2d" traits for Yang and Blake as they just didn't play a major role up to this point, Yang's being flirty and a "Class clown", Blake is being a bookworm and secretive. I went back and forth with the idea of keeping Pyrrha and Ruby as party of the same team, but I decided that if I did that I would have almost not use for Nora, Ren, Yang, Or Blake in the story. Blake in particular has an important role to play later on in the story as well. so I kinda need her as part of the team.**

After a long assignment in the field, and what felt like an even longer post initiation celebration, one that including Jaune learning his permanent team assignments, Jaune wanted nothing more than the shower he was currently enjoying. Jaune's shoulders noticeably lost tension as he let the hot water run down the groves in his muscular shoulder and down his chest and back. The hot water washing away the grime of the day, and burying any lingering muscle aches he still had from the field assignment under the soothing heat of the shower water.

But his mind was still burdened by a couple of troubling issues. For starters he still couldn't believe Headmaster Ozpin made him the leader oh his newly formed team "Team Beyond". Also known as Team BJWY. Weiss of course was not thrilled by Jaune being named team leader, and made her thoughts on it _painfully well_ known. Jaune decided that once they got the final initiation test results in a few days they would be able to see just what the hell Ozpin was thinking.

Jaune didn't feel much like a leader, at least no yet, but the Headmaster spoke of "potential" allot in his speech, like Jaune had the potential to be a great team leader.

Still his "Duelist" and "Brawler" scores were... well not outstanding. Jaune reminded himself that, while that was true, it was because he couldn't use the full extent of his talents during the trip the Emerald Forest due to a certain someone who was sitting in the next room.

As he started to towel himself off, he reached into his field pouch, pulling out the two "fingers" of Yellow dust he had taken into the field with him and stared at them for a solid minute. He regarded the color of the dust as the light shined through them, and observed the small hairline cracks in the stones before putting one of them in his mouth and biting a chunk off of the dust rock, chewing the hardened Dust stone like someone would chew up a piece of hard candy and swallowing it. He did this until he had eaten both dust pieces.

What could he say, as a Dust Eater. A lot of his abilities relied on more than Aura to function. 'Still' He thought to himself 'I really overdid it out in the field today, I normally wouldn't only need to eat a finger of dust a week, and I just had to eat two fingers of the stuff'

Jaune finished up, brushed his teeth and put on his sweatpants before stepping out to spend some time with his new team.

As he stepped out Weiss shot him a slightly dirty and angry glance "Well it's about time _fearless leader_. I was worried that we would have to send a search party in after you."

Jaune waved off comment, flippantly replying "Hey if you three want to spend the night trying to sleep in a room with a boy that smells of dirt and B.O, then let me know next time and i'll see what I can do."

Blake just eye rolled while reading her novel "Oh no that's quite okay Jaune, I for one am okay with not having the room stink of boy."

Yang stiffing a giggle replayed to her partner "Well we better not leave him alone in here with Weiss here then"

Weiss let out a loud an noticeable "UGH" before standing up "Well either way we need to establish some ground rules for this room!"

Jaune having flopped on his bed on his back, shirtless, much to Yang's barely disguised pleasure "Look if your about to tell me that I can't strut around the room without pants on, then I frankly want nothing to do with this conversation"

Blake pulled her book up to her face to hide behind it, but the way her body was shaking led Jaune to believe she was trying to hide her laughter. Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to block out the mental image, and clearly the image was winning.

Yang raised her hand and said "Actually can we put it to a vote to allow Jaune to go pants-less?"

Blake gave up on hiding her laughter and just started laughing in her bed, Weiss stammered out a "N-No we are not allowing him to go pants-less in this room!"

Jaune started to hold his sides as his giggles started to escape him "It's okay, I'm joking anyways" Jaune looked at the expression on Weiss's face seeing, what he thought was an almost cute blush in the right light combined with silent disapproval of his entire physical existence before saying "Sorry, Sorry, I'll try to behave!"

Weiss sighed and folded her arms "That being said, yes the first rule is Jaune is not allowed to go pants-less in the room."

Jaune raised his hand "Got a question." Jaune put on his best offended face "Why just me in particular?"

Weiss put her hands on her hips "Because I wear nightgowns to bed and no one here wants to see that part of you!"

Jaune wanted to imply otherwise, based on Yang's blushing, but he decided it was not worth a trip to the headmasters office for sexual harassment.

Weiss, noting that Jaune was silent "Also, I think we can all agree, no boys in the room"

Jaune sat up "Welp in that case I'll be over at Team Propane's (PRRN) room then"

Weiss stomped her feat "You know what I meant by that Cave-Boy. But fine, I'll revise the rule to mean that your not allowed to bring your _dates_ Back here"

Yang chimed in "So it's okay to bring guys here if were not _dating_ them then" Yang then put on a shit eating grin that irked the hell out of Weiss.

Blake also lifted her head up to speak, she had been so quiet that the others forgot that she was actually there for a bit "You won't have to worry about me bringing anyone home, I'm not here to get laid Weiss"

Jaune seconded that "Yeah, same here, I mean I don't want to get tied down here to one person when I'll be swimming in fan girls once we graduate after all." Yang just shook her head in amusement, Blake shot him a curious look wondering if Jaune was serious or not.

Weiss just pinched the bridge of her nose again and just said in exasperation "Go put a shirt on you pig"

Jaune shrugged "Can't, I didn't have any spare clothes with me, besides the guys of my village weren't big on shirts. It was a sort of informal custom that guys went shirtless when they weren't working to show off the results of their hard work and effort."

Weiss replied firmly "Then put on your sweater you moron!"

Much to Weiss's annoyance Jaune shot a goofy looking Grin "Actually Ruby has my sweater in her room, she said she was going to try to modify it, and I asked her to take the other sleeve off so it at least matched"

Weiss was reminded of something she wanted to bring up and pointed at Jaune "That reminds me, we need to go get you some proper clothes and armor tomorrow, I can't go around being seen by someone in such shoddy armor and clothing"

Jaune's looks turned serious "And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" he saw up looking directly at Weiss

Weiss sensing the sudden turn from Jaune tried to explain "It's just that, I do have an image to uphold here, we wouldn't reflect well on me if my own partner went around in threadbare clothes and dented up _unpainted_ armor" She looked at him "That goes double now, since I'm supposed to be following your orders."

Jaune stood up folding his arms and mentally dug his heels in for an argument "For starters, I'm not asking anyone to follow my orders, I'd like to think that no one in this room would ever me put me in the spot where I have to force you all to do my biding" Jaune pointed at Weiss "Like an _Atlesian_ would." Jaune then started to pace around "Second, I'm supposed to be your partner. I didn't come to Beacon to play the role of some 'white knight', or be some rich girls arm candy. I sure as hell didn't come here believing that I was some big damn hero that was going to sweep some _princess_ off her feet, I came here to learn how to kill Grimm, and protect what maters to me"

Weiss waited patiently for Jaune to finish his rant before replying "An Atleasian? Or a Schnee? I thought we got past all of this this in the forest. I want to know why you have a chip on your shoulder for my family!"

Jaune leaned back having been put on the spot. He could see Blake suddenly take an interest in the conversation for reasons that didn't seem clear to him. Obviously he couldn't use 'the genocide of my race' as a reason in this case so he had to think fast. Jaune said waving it off saying "I'm the son of a Dust Miner, are you really saying you can't think of a reason we might take issue with the Schnee Dust Company?" Jaune went and reached for one of the many school shirts to put on.

Weiss folded her arms and no longer attempt to make eye contact with Jaune "I can't claim that I do, that is unless your secretly a Faunus. If that's the case we should talk about that."

Jaune's eyes shot forward at the wall he was facing freezing for a second while buttoning up the shirt he was wearing, the silence weighed heavy on the room for a few moments before he spoke. "No... I'm not a Faunus" He finished buttoning his shirt up before headed for the door to the room "I'll be back later, I'm going to step out and get a drink."

As Jaune closed the door behind him Weiss found herself staring at his back wondering what she said that set him off. No one in the room noticed the silent Blake eyeing Weiss carefully.

* * *

Elsewhere in the school, Ozpin was reviewing drone camera footage from the student's initiation performances. He was writing notes in a small notebook about his own personal observations with one hand, and sipping from a cup of coffee with his other. So far besides being generally impressed with certain students, he didn't find that anyone stood out in any specific fashion besides the obvious Pyrrha Nikos and her partner.

That was until he decided to watch the young Mr Arc's footage. Ozpin had pushed Mr Arc low on his "to do" list due to his lack of a combat school training, noteworthy accomplishments to his name, or even coming from a particularly important family like his partner Ms Schnee had.

Still as he started the playback of his footage, not even really bothering to take notes at the boys flailing antics while still in the air, he suddenly found himself pausing the video on his screen.

On the screen he observed that Jaune Arc's arm had changed into that of a beast's limb, and his eyes seamed to glow with a amber shine. He zoomed the video scream in on his arms, for the first time since he sat down to work, Ozpin set his coffee mug down and leaned forward on his desk.

"Yellow scales, as well as silver coarse fur on the forearm" Ozpin said to no one in particular as his thoughts turned towards trying to remember what that reminded him of. He hit the play button again watching the drone recorded footage more, taking notes of the young man's fighting style, and his observed abilities.

"He didn't seem to demonstrate any form of shape changing ability durr-" He paused the video again, on a shot of Jaune shocking the tail of the Deathstalker.

The realization of what he was seeing caused no small amount of surprise in Ozpin. Ignoring the video feed he pulled up the list of items that Mr Arc had brought with him on campus. One item in particular got his attention instantly, a box full yellow dust crystals.

Picking up his coffee with a satisfied expression on his face for having solved the little riddle he was presented with, Ozpin spoke aloud to no one in particular. "So, we have a Dust Eater on our campus."

Turning to face away from his desk, Ozpin took a long sip from his mug while thinking what to do with this new revelation.

 **As a final note, Yes of course Ozpin is going to know what Jaune really is, I mean he's Ozpin, the so called "Old Man" Of legend and future "Voice in a farm boy's head". Also this chapter really needed to confirm that, well dull, Jaune is the titular dust eater, but it also confirm that he is not the only one out there, I'll elaborate on that in later chapters as well.**


	7. Chapter 7: Weiss

**So here's chapter 7 of dust eater, this chapter, at least to me flowed much easier from my brain to my fingers than the last one did and hopefully the quality is a bit better as well. So you might notice that this is the first chapter I put a name to, Naming after the character who's in focus during the chapter. I know most of the chapters focused on Jaune's thoughts on the situation at hand, and occasional showing the thoughts of other characters, But this chapter was all Weiss, so it seemed fitting to make it work that way. As for Ozpin, well he's now filling an unintentional role in the story, Ozpin was always until he started sharing head space with the young boy, was kind of the passive observer type. Here I can use him, as sort of the reader surrogate as he studies up on Dust eaters, a subject he knows little about (shocking I know), to teach everyone else about the dust eaters themselves and to give some more background into the history of the species.**

 **Also in this chapter, if you squint really hard and change the font to wingdings, you might see some hints of a possible JauneXWeiss pairing. But honestly, I'm not writing this with the shippers in mind, so we will see what happens. I think other better authors have handled every possible permutation of each possible ship in the fandom far better than I can hope to in any-rate.**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see about working on the next chapter when I get the time.**

It was pretty late when Jaune returned back to the dorm room. Weiss took note that he was carrying a shopping bag that he tossed onto one of their desks before he face-planted into his bed.

Yang and Blake had stepped out a half hour or so ago so they could explore the campus, Weiss had been reading a book she had borrowed from Blake about Ninjas when Jaune came in.

Weiss stood up, putting the book aside and walked over to the bag and looked inside of it, She saw that Jaune had purchased some extra clothes, mostly older items, a bit out of fashion, and nothing from any major brands she could recognize. Weiss also noticed that the shirts all looked like they would be a bit on the baggy side for Jaune's athletic build.

Weiss looked over at her clearly exhausted partner. "When I said you should get some new clothes I didn't mean tonight" as she felt her face contort to worry.

Jaune spoke, his voice muffled by his pillow and with a clearly worn out tone "Just be happy I manged to find a consignment shop open this late"

Weiss frowned, she figured the young miner didn't exactly have a lot of lien to his name, but he didn't even go to an actual clothes shop? "If you needed money for this I would of helped you."

Jaune didn't look up still speaking through his pillow "I was raised to be self sufficient, and to never own anything I couldn't buy or make for myself." Jaune paused "Besides I didn't want to owe anyone any favors"

Weiss read between the lines "You mean you didn't want to owe _me_ any favors." She put the shirt she was holding back in his bag and sat back down on her bed, which thanks for yang's insistence, was right next to her partners. "You really don't like me do you."

Jaune didn't answer right away "I don't like that your not letting me sleep right now."

The room was filled with a bitter silence as Weiss stared at the Jaune's messy hair, she would quietly admit that he wasn't hard to look at, at least to her. But more importantly than some hormonal imbalance, he had become a something of a mystery. She wanted to know where all his anger at her family came from. Was his parents fired from one of their dust mines? He said his father was still a miner, so it's not impossible they had to relocate to Vale where her family didn't have a monopoly on mining Dust yet.

But he also seems to not be a big fan of Atlas as a whole... At least he said he wasn't a Faunus, so at least she didn't have to worry about him being some sort of White Fang terrorist waiting to stab her in her sleep tonight.

Weiss, unable to bear the silence any further spoke up "So where are you from anyways?"

Jaune noticeably tensed up at the question. Weiss picked up on it with some curiosity, but he still answered her question "Just a little mining town that's so small no one ever bothered to name it." Jaune then asked back with an accusing tone "Why is the SDC looking to make a purchase?"

Weiss pushed down her annoyance but still with a hint of anger stated "I'm not my father's company Jaune, I try not to live in his shadow as much as I can"

Weiss watched Jaune's shoulders relax a bit. she spoke softly "I just want to know the type of person my partner is, is that really such a problem for you?"

Jaune tilted his head to look at her, Weiss could see the sheer exhaustion in his face. Weiss understood why of course, he went through hell and back in the Emerald Forest, and then he turned around and went into Vale to buy clothes because she pushed him into it. She felt a pang of guilt at the second part.

Weiss was about to say something when Blake and Yang returned, Weiss shrugged and thought 'So much for solving this mystery tonight then'.

* * *

Professor Port's class, in Weiss's less than humble opinion, was an embarrassment to the very concept of teaching as a whole. And why wouldn't she feel that way, this so called professor spent half the class so far talking up his own past exploits as a Huntsmen.

Weiss found the fact that Jaune was actually taking some notes more interesting, he had a notebook in his hands he was adding notes to. She glanced over at it and saw that he had taken intricate notes on the subject of Beowulf, including some surprisingly detailed drawings and observations on the variously weak points and detailed notes on pack behavior, a brief diagram on how they set up nests, it was fascinating stuff she was reading..

Weiss thought to herself 'So my partner knows quite a bit about Grimm, he's also not a bad artist either" A passing thought of her posing for him as he drew a picture of her flashed through her head briefly as she snapped her focus away from Jaune in embarrassment. She had done so just in time for Professor port to call upon the class for a volunteer to demonstrate their skills against a Grimm in the class.

Well, who was she to turn down a challenge, or a chance to prove her skills. She one the only one to raise her hand.

Weiss was enthusiastic as Port called her down. She stood up, her rapier in hand watching as a couple of Port's teaching assistants pushed a chained cage into the room with some kind of boar like Grimm inside of it. As she started to walk down to the front of the class, she felt Jaune grab her wrist. She turned to face her _fearless leader_ wondering what he wanted.

Jaune spoke quietly "That's a Boarbatusk, do you know how to take one of them out?"

Weiss's felt a simmering anger grow in her "Are you trying to imply I don't know how to take down such a simple monster?"

Jaune's eyes were serious but he let her hand go, Weiss couldn't quite figure what her partner was thinking, he just merely said "Well, I trust you won't embarrass us then."

Weiss couldn't believe the nerve of him, sure he might have that damn notebook of his, but she at least was _trained_ at fighting, he didn't even graduate from a combat school before coming here.

Weiss took a ready stance at the front of the class, ready to vent off some of that building anger, as Port took his axe and neatly cleaved the chain holding the cage closed and the Boarbatusk charged out of the cage

Port stood back, Her teammates either watched in silence, or shouted out for Weiss to kick it's ass.

The Boarbatusk struck first charging as if it was planing to plow into her with it's sharpened tusks, Weiss waited for it to get close, and then easily side stepped it and lashed out at it with her rapier only managing to scrape against the side of the creature's bone plating.

Of course the creature was armored, Weiss tried to examine the Grinn for a spot where she could strike the creature, surely it had a weak point somewhere... right?

The Boarbatusk had different plans however, it turned almost on a dime and charged at her again, Weiss was almost taken aback by the beasts speed as she leaped to the side and shot a glance at her partner who was watching with a tense expression on his face.

That split second of distraction was all the Boarbatusk needed and it leap into the air rolling into a bony ball and forced Weiss to roll to the side ungracefully. The Grimm smashed into the teachers desk and smashed through it before it turned and charged her again.

Weiss however noticed one thing, the creature seamed to be unarmored on it's underside, if she could just get it on it's back for just a moment, she could easily take it out.

As she was thinking on how she could do that, the creature charged again. Rolling once again into a ball, Weiss decided to try something and threw up a Glyph in front of it. When the Boarbatusk crashed into it, she could see the Glyph crack from the impact of the Grimm's body against it. Weiss mentally pictured what it would have done to her if it had plowed into her like that. Weiss then noticed that the Grimm had stunned itself in the process and fell on it's side leaving it's stomach wide open.

It was a simple manner of course for her to stab it in the stomach at that point and when she did, her dual with the Grimm came to a sudden and uneventful end.

Weiss felt elated, she had proven to the class that she was the real deal, that she deserved to be there, at least in her own eyes.

The Professor seemed to almost disagree "Not a bad performance, you managed to exploit it's weakness, but I must ask, was that your first battle against a Boarbatusk?"

Weiss sheathed her sword, curious as to why the professor was asking "Well, yes sir it was".

The professor without changing his facial expression "In that case, good job thinking on your feet, you may take your seat"

Weiss honestly didn't care for how Port worded that, it almost felt like she was being damned with faint praise. As she returned to her seat and sat back down she noticed her Partner had his notebook the desk turned to a section on Boarbatusks.

Well at least she knew why her partner was asking if she wanted a few pointers. Weiss rubbed her neck and made a mental note to talk to him about helping her out in this class later on tonight.

Weiss's thoughts were scattered and questioning of she did something wrong during the fight until she heard her partner tell her "Good job kicking that things ass Snowflake"

she was not sure why, but that seemed to have lifted her spirits quite a bit.

* * *

The rest of the day passed mostly uneventfully until Combat classes with Professor Goodwitch. That was except for a small explosive realization at just how bad Jaune was at handling dust.

They had been given the time time to get into their combat gear before the class and Weiss took stock of the weapons her teammates brought with them. She saw Blake carrying a strange weapon that looked like a dark gray combat knife with a Black fabric strap attacked to the hilt, she also saw what looked like a small caliber firearm built into said hilt.

Weiss couldn't wait to see that in action. Weiss also found her self noting that Yang didn't seem to bring a weapon at all to class. 'Lovely, we have two people on our team that try to get by with their fists" She thought.

Weiss's attention was called to the front of the class, as the Professor called everyone's attention to the front.

Ms Goodwitch spoke up "Okay class, listen up, today I'm going to try and sort the class by the aptitude scores in your dueling abilities to try and put you into one on one spars with someone on your skill level"

Weiss slightly tuned out the instructor as she went on to explain she was going to start off with students that under performed in the schools initiation tests first and eventually work her way up the chain.

Weiss's attention was snapped to the front of the class when Glynda said "We'll start off with our lower end performers Would Mr Arc and Mr Winchester please come up?"

She swore she could hear her partner mutter "Aw Crap" as he stood up.

* * *

Ozpin sat alone in his office, his eyes focused on his computer he was watching the feed from Gylnda's classroom, in his hands he held his scroll as he was reading an older report, commissioned by the Schnee dust company in it's early days when the, as the report claims, "Subterranean humanoid lizards" were first discovered.

The "Watts Report on Dust Eaters" as it was called, was a report commissioned by the SDC's founder Nicholas Schnee who wanted to know if the, at the time, recently discovered and highly secretive species was going to be a major threat to the Atlas government. Ozpin questioned if the late Schnee also commissioned the report in an effort to see if the Dust Eaters would also be a threat to his own small but growing company as well."

Ozpin noted, that at least according to the report, Dust eaters were in fact a major threat to, not just Atlas but Remnant as a whole, the report advised that the so called "Monstrous Lizard men" consumed "Huge amounts of dust" in which the good doctor also added "The same dust that is vital to our war efforts against the Grimm" and the report said that the "Barely sentient creatures no doubt if left alone, would surely create massive shortages of the all to important resource that fuels our very society."

Ozpin would recall, that the author of the report, a well known and regarded Doctor, one know for having an incredible thirst for new knowledge, Arthur Watts was a well regarded multi-vocational scientist and researcher in his day. Ozpin came to the conclusion that his findings, as well as a push by Nicholas Schnee himself, would be all that was required for Atlas to pass the "Dust Eater Extermination Act" in the interests of public safety.

Ozpin noted as well, that other kingdoms, including Vale, had actually passed laws to prevent Dust eaters from settling down in the major settlements of the various Kingdoms due to the very same report.

Ozpin never thought much on the subject before today, he frankly had to much on his plate as it stood, especially now that this terrible business with the Fall Maiden was taking place. Ozpin was no fool however and knew from experience how many conveniently already dug out dust Mines fell into the SDC's possession after the exterminations.

"Very Convent indeed" Ozpin said to no one in particular. Ozpin also while thinking about it, can not recall ever hearing about Arthur Watts passing, And that Nicholas Schnee's own cause of death was never made public by the Schnee family.

Ozpin put the scroll down and returned his gaze back to his his computer to watch the first year combat class just as Mr Arc was about to have his first classroom dual against one Cardin Winchester. Ozpin found himself wondering to himself 'I can only imagine how Mr Arc will handle being partnered with Ms Schnee in the long term, lets hope it doesn't result in the first recorded instance of a murder on campus'.


	8. Chapter 8

**Every time I sit down to write up a chapter, I always end thinking I'll be writing up something like "Okay so this is a shorter chapter than I planed" or something, only to find out that I had managed to churn out 2000 words or something. I generally find myself taking several breaks when writing when one of the kids comes bounding over to me for something, or getting distracted by my wife playing WoW or if I need to sneak off to cook up lunch or my good old ADHD kicks in. I have more to say but i'll save that till the end so I don't spoil the plot of this chapter before you even read it. I seriously wonder how some people manage to pull off these massive 10,000 word chapters. It legitimately amazes me to see the.**

Jaune cautiously approached the fighting stage. As he walked up to the stage he started to size up his opponent. Heavy armor, that is going to be a problem, his weapons don't have great penetration. A large mace that weights about as much as one of his little sisters, lets hope he's not fast on his feet with it.

Jaune weighed his options, he couldn't go all out on this fight. Damn the fact that most of his abilities require him to metabolize the dust stored in his dust stomach. He knew he'd have to conserve as much of his Dust as possible if he didn't want to start facing starvation problems down the road.

He turned and waved at the members of teams Propane and Beyond as they waved and cheered for him to win, if only he had their confidence at the moment.

Glynda called for the match to start and battle was joined. Jaune immediately found himself on the defensive as Cardin rushed in swinging his mace at Jaune with a level of speed that Jaune wasn't anticipating. Jaune managed to push Cardin's initial overhead mace strike aside with his left arm and tried to counter, but his efforts to elbow strike Cardin in the head failed when the larger youth simply swatted Jaune's arm aside before slugging Jaune in the face with his off hand causing Jaune to stagger.

Jaune staggered back and was forced into a backwards roll as Cardin took a wild horizontal swing of his mace that missed Jaune's head by a split second. Jaune thought to himself 'Dammit, I can't let him keep controlling the tempo of this fight, how do I get him on the defensive?'.

Cardin rushed in and tried to thrust the mace into Jaune's chest. Jaune rolled around the mace on the outside kicking the backside of Cardin's left knee and using his right arm to lock Cardin's mace arm behind Jaune's back as he tried to flip the heavier student.

While Cardin's knee did buckle from the kick, the larger student simply dropped his mace and overpowered Jaune, slamming him into a nearby wall taking a large chunk of Jaune's aura with it.

'Well at least he's disarmed now, if I can get him off of me I might be able to-' Jaune's thoughts were interrupted as he was force to jerk his head aside to prevent Cardin from punching his head into the wall. Jaune retorted by headbutting Cardin putting the larger boy off balance, Jaune had just enough space to get both feet up to Cardin's chest and kick the stronger youth back.

That was good, if he could force his opponent out of his comfort zone, he might just win this. Cardin rushed Jaune trying to take Jaune out with a heavy hay-maker. Jaune punished Cardin by forcefully parrying Cardin's strike at the Wrist and retorting with a quick strike to Cardin's Jaw. 'Got to keep him off balance' Jaune thought to himself as he exploited Cardin's momentary disorientation by slamming both palms into Cardin's ears causing them to ring and absolutely demolishing Cardin's sense of balance.

"Ah what the fu-" Was all Cardin manged to get out as Jaune then struck Cardin in the jaw a second time weakening the area. Highly disoriented, Cardin was only able to throw of a clumsy right hook that Jaune was able to deflect with his own Left elbow before striking Cardin with a backhand to the other side of Cardin's head in the temple staggering him even further.

Jaune finished his chain of strikes, taking a step back, getting a running leap and slamming his right fist right between Cardin's eyes causing the boy to fall on his ass.

It was dirty, it looked more like a barroom brawl than a duel, and it absolutely would get him destroyed against literally any other student in the school, but a win was a win.

Jaune looked up at the aura gauges on the screen and whistled, his own aura was down to about 2 percent above the red line. Cardin's own aura was barely below the red line despite taking a greater number of hits from Jaune.

Cardin was a powerhouse, and Jaune was just that lucky today.

Jaune held his hand out as Cardin stood up "Good match today"

Cardin slapped Jaune's hand aside and went for his mace. So much for civility.

As Jaune made it back to his seat, he listened to Glynda's assessment on their performance "Not a bad showing Mr Winchester I believe you should now understand the importance to keeping hold of one's weapon" Glynda then turned to Jaune "Mr Arc, that was an... interesting performance I suppose. But I highly recommend you work on your Aura manipulation, your Aura can be more than a barrier to soak hits after all"

Jaune nodded in acknowledgement, he also took noted of the curious gazes Weiss and Ruby was shooting at him, Ruby then asked him "What gives Jaune? Why did you hold back so much?"

Jaune tried to play it off "Just wanted to put on a good show for the class."

Neither of the girls bought that for a second.

* * *

Later on in the cafeteria over Lunch, Jaune walked up to the team with a grin on his face "Guess who got our assessment scores back finally."

Yang perked up at this "Oh good we can finally shut the 'ice queen' up about about who should be team leader"

Weiss shook her head "I still refuse to truly believe it. I'm not sure a paper will convince me either."

Blake just muttered "I don't give a damn either way right now"

Jaune presented the brown envelop like a magician before pulling out the assessment scores and laying them out on the table "Lets see here, if I'm reading this right, with ratings being out of 100. Blake you got a.." Jaune traces his finger across the page "A fifty two on your leadership assessment, but you the top of the class as a scout at a ninety nine!" Jaune looks at Blake with a genuinely impressed look on his face "Damn Blake, you go girl!"

Blake glanced away fighting a slight blush "Well I guess I got a knack for it."

Jaune then looked between Yang and the page "Well Yang, as the teams brawler I'm not surprised to say that you assessed at a ninety two in that department, actually none of your scores seem to be below a seventy, so you could really sub out for anyone else here decently well enough"

Yang got a smug grin "Well of course, that's what happens when both of your parents are former hunters!"

Jaune replied "Well I'm impressed at least, granted i'm pretty easy to impress." Jaune looked at the page again "Okay so Weiss your got a ninety six in Dueling, and a eighty two in Brawling, so I can see why your the Duelist of the team, your scout rating was only a sixty seven but-"

Weiss interrupted "I get that, but what did I get on _Leadership"_

Jaune looked right at her and said "You got an eighty seven, that puts you in the upper end of the class"

Weiss scoffed "Seriously? okay then _Fearless leader_ What did you get"

Jaune looked at his own scores "Well I apparently performed poorly in Brawling and Dueling with a sixty eight and sixty four in both,. Did pretty good in Scouting with a eighty eight..."

Weiss with an annoyed expression on her face "Come out with it, what was your leadership score"

Jaune looked at her "Looks like... a ninety seven, I'm second in the class behind Ruby with her ninety eight"

Weiss grabbed the paper out of his hand in disbelief "Impossible, that must have been a fluke, or a computer error!"

Jaune rolled his eyes "Look I'm not one for arguing the numbers, I'm fairly confident that in a straight dual the three of you would find new and exciting ways to use me as a punching bag." Jaune points at Blake "No one here is going to argue that Blake is the quietest person in our group. Hell we forget she's their sometimes because of how quiet she is"

Jaune points at Yang "And I honestly wouldn't want to get on her bad side, we all saw what she did to Ren in combat class today" Jaune rubs the back of her neck "And Weiss, your pretty graceful on your feet and could literally _dance_ around your opponent in class today, frankly it's a bit intimidating to be at the same table as you three"

The girls exchanged glances, Blake spoke up "Sure I think that's a fair assessment of us so far, but what about you Jaune?"

Jaune leaned forward on the table "Well the numbers don't lie, I'm just a particularity cleaver son of a miner that leaned to fight in a bar and got in on good looks and charm"

Blake stared down Jaune "That's a load of crap, you wouldn't have survived initiation otherwise"

Weiss sighed "And you do know more about Grimm than I do" she looks on the page "It said here that your 'Grimm Studies' and 'Tactics and Planing' scores are on a third year level"

Jaune countered "Your 'Dust Manipulation' and 'Aura Control' are both third year level as well" Jaune shoots a winning smile "Hell I'm sure we all could stand to learn something from each other right?"

The team was silent for a few moments at the thought about it before Yang nudged Weiss with her elbow "See? that's why he's the team leader."

* * *

They all had a good chuckle at Weiss's expense. But Jaune left the conversation feeling less than vindicated. He never had formal combat training, and while he knew how to kill Grimm thanks to the village militia. His training however relied on him using his abilities as a Dust Eater, abilities he couldn't very well use at the school. That was at least not before he knew for sure that his team would have his back and he could be sure he'd be able to maintain a steady supply of Yellow Dust to consume and fuel his abilities.

Blake sat in her bed watching Weiss pace around, Yang had just stepped out to talk to some boy she met in history class, and Jaune was out at some team leader's meeting that all of the first years had to attend.

Much to Blake's annoyance Weiss loudly rummaged through her bags "Dammit all, I thought I had made sure to pack more Yellow dust than this!"

Blake shook her head "Whats the big deal? I'm sure your family will just send more to you if you called them"

Weiss put a hand to her forehead "In 3 weeks, I mean I kinda need some right now for my weapon." Weiss snaps her fingers "Wait Jaune brought yellow dust with him, you think he'll mind if I borrowed his stash for now and repay him for it when my shipment comes in?"

Blake could only shake her head at this "Why don't we just go down to the dust shop near school and buy some there?"

Weiss frowned "Damn Dust thieves hit that place last week and they managed to get away with a good amount of their Dust." Weiss shakes her head "Besides I already called them, and their out of Yellow Dust. They have an even longer wait than I do for a new supply thanks to the White fang raiding shipments coming into Vale.

Blake cringed a bit hearing the name of the organization she use to run with and stammered "S-Still you should at least ask Jaune before taking it"

Weiss laughed "Oh come on, he doesn't even use it, his weapons don't incorporate dust, and he we both saw that his dust manipulation scores were pretty poor, he won't even miss it I'll bet."

Blake bit her cheek fighting back what she wants to say to Weiss right now "Okay but if this bites you in the ass, that's not on me"

Weiss said as she found Jaune's box of Dust, pocketing the few crystals that were in the box "Oh what's the worst that could happen?"

 **Okay so I went back and forth a lot trying to decide who was going to win the Duel between Cardin and Jaune, I'm going to try to not fall into the trap of making Cardin a one note racist bully like so many stories manage to do so, and I really didn't want Jaune to just stomp the shit out of Cardin either, Honestly his win today had almost nothing to do with Jaune's skill as a fighter, but more based on luck a head for being able to analyze the situation. I used a drastically toned down version of the Boxing scene from the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film as a source of inspiration for to show Jaune thinking on his feet.**

 **Also, if you think I'm kinda lowballing Gavin's scores a bit. Well the reason should be clear why that might be by this point.**

 **I have a couple chapters before I kick off this Story's version of the "Jaunedice" Arc, Because in this version, he didn't have transcripts to fake, he just passed and entrance exam, I had to come up with a replacement story line for Jaune. I also have planed this to blend into "Forever Fall" as well but I won't go into details for either until they kick off.**


	9. Chapter 9

**So before I start, I was brought to my attention by Site User X3runner11211 that due to a site issue from posting two chapters to close together than notifications were not sent out for chapter 8, so before we go into today's update IF YOU HAVE NOT READ CHAPTER 8, PLEASE GO BACK AND DO SO!**

 **So here we have the first chapter of the "Starvation" Story line I drafted up to replace the "Jaundace" story line from the Show, if was fun writing this, but as i'm back into the 40 hour grind that is my life, it was also slow to write. it also gives me a chance to drip feed more info about just what the hell Dust Eaters are since that's a big part of the mystery at this stage of the story. Other than that, I hope I didn't Flanderize Ruby a bit here with her love of weapons to much. Otherwise Hope as always you enjoy the chapter and i'll see you all in chapter 10.**

Several days later, Jaune during an open study found himself in the company of fellow team leader Ruby Rose. Jaune sat nervously next to the girl as she jotted away at something in a note book, her head cutely bopping along to some song. Their had been a single question that was eating at his very soul for a couple days now, something that he needed the answer to, no _craved_ the answer to.

Ruby's answer here might very well destroy the young Jaune Arc in a way that not even all 4 maidens or the old man himself could repair. He hesitated, palms sweaty, mouth dry as he worked out the nerve to ask such a short but fundamentally relationship changing question of his friend.

"Ruby... I need to know..." Jaune's eyes lit up with false bravado and determination "Can you help me improve my weapons!"

Ruby at the time was working on a design for a bullet type with delayed reaction munition attached to a 100 millisecond detonation trigger that should, if she could get the mixture of dust just right, cause a 2 inch area inside of the target to compress inward to the point of causing a fusion reaction that should cause the area of the targets entry wound to expand out in a sort of miniature star that would incinerate the target before blinking out of existence seconds later.

Ruby pulled off one of her headphones "I'm sorry Jaune what did you say?"

Jaune asked again "I want your help improving my weapons" laying his Katars on the table

Ruby smirked playfully "I don't know Jaune, normally I'd ask a guy to buy me dinner first before I played around with his weapon" She points at him with a narrow eyed expression "What am I getting out of this?"

Jaune came prepared, with a narrow eyed gaze he set a Tupperware container on the table "You must understand, I do not share this lightly, for once you experience what is in the box, you will be forever a slave to it!"

Ruby smirked "Goooo on..."

Jaune opened the Tupperware container, and inside contained 3 dozen, Arc family secret recipe 'Double Chocolate chip Thin Mint cookies'. Cookies so legendary that it was said that entire decade long wars were fought over them in the past. If Helen of Troy was a cookie, she would still pale under the sheer grandeur of the cookies Ruby was being presented.

Ruby reached in and took a bite from one, her eyes lit up immediately as her very taste buds screamed out in rapture before she regarded Jaune again "All Jokes aside, I will seriously considering bearing your children if you were to promise me that I could have these any time I wanted."

Jaune had a hearty laugh at Ruby's comment "If I thought that was an option I would take you up on it" Jaune took another minute to beat down the giggle fit he had after seeing Ruby's face turned the same color as her hood when she heard what he said. "Seriously though, I'm really struggling with hard targets with my weapons here, I mean their good for taking down Grim, but Cardin had me dead to rights because I couldn't get past the armor"

Ruby picked one of them up and took a panel off examining the mechanisms inside "Well I mean I can see you were really working on a budget here, I mean I love the spring loaded mechanisms for deploying the blades, and the latching mechanisms look solid" She looked up at him with a confused and almost disappointed expression "Did you seriously use unrefined Iron in the blades though, you can' really conduct Dust or Aura for a damn through them"

Jaune shrugged watching as ruby Nibbled on a cookie while examining the blade of his weapons "Yeah, I mean you were right as far as a budget went, I didn't exactly have a fancy family heirloom weapon to pilfer before coming to class after all. I actually made the blades out of the iron from a broken pickax that I heated in a forge and hammered to shape with a piston hammer before sharpening them on an industrial grinder."

Ruby nodded at that "Crude, but if all you need for it is to stab Grimm than it's effective, I would have gone with a Titanium alloy of some sort like I used for my Crescent Rose's blade"

Jaune held out a hand "Yeah but, titanium is a really pain in the ass to work with as you can's really heat forge Titanium since heat only makes it harder. It's not somthing I had the ability to pull off at home" Jaune snaps his fingers "Do you think Damascus forging would work at all?"

Ruby purred at the idea "It'd look hot as hell! But for practical terms I know the blacksmith on campus has a laser cutter and a plasma torch that we could use to machine cut new blades for your Katars out of Titanium. We might be able to even pull the same trick you used at home and forge it from scrape plates" Ruby snapped her fingers as well "You also have allot of empty space in here, we might be able to work in a dust crystal container that we can feed into the blades themselves making it so you could infuse the blade with a dust element like Weiss does"

Jaune shook his head speaking "Okay well 2 things here, first off, we haven't even been here a week, how do you know what the blacksmith's lab has in it? Second lets not get to crazy here. I think I just want to get to the point of being to be able to stab things better before I work on how could also flash freeze their internal organs while also causing said organs to then burst out of them like I shoved a shrapnel grenade in the stomach."

Ruby thought about it for a second "Are we slipping back to flirting again? Because if we are I need to remind you I'm fifteen, and my older sister knows where you sleep."

Jaune deadpanned back at her "I know where she sleeps to, enjoy the mental image in 30 seconds"

Ruby shook her head sliding the weapon back to him "I'll draft up a 3d model for a blueprint for the blades and i'll meet you later on so we can start machine worki- OH EW JAUNE WHY?!"

Jaune smiled evilly "Don't worry, I'm not really that into blondes Ruby"

Ruby tried to rub away the mental image "You better not be, so help me gods if you pollute my family's bloodline I will be so-"

Jaune stopped her "Right, I got you, your sister is off limits and you'd only date me for the cookies, it's okay Ruby."

Ruby finishing off her cookie "Well and the chance to play around with your weapon here"

Jaune blushed a bit now being bombarded with a mental image of his own "Okay who's flirting with who now?"

Ruby smiled innocently "I have no idea what your talking about Jaune, I think I should have a talk with the headmaster about your harassment"

Jaune smiled "Oh sure but you'll run out of cookies eventually"

Ruby pretended to think it over "Well, I suppose I'll let you off the hook this time okay?" Ruby then got up and started to head off carrying her newly acquired tub of cookies. "Catch me after school and we'll make a evening of making those new blades for you okay?"

Jaune smiled as he felt a familiar rumble in his stomach, thinking 'Eh I'm probably getting a bit Dust-hungry, better work on that after class today"

* * *

Glynda stood before the class and started to speak "Listen students, I want to go ahead and mix it up today, I'm going to allow for today any student in class to challenge any oth-"

Yang stood up and pointed at Jaune directly "You bastard, I heard about how you bribed my sister with cookies to play with your weapon, get down there so I can beat the shit out of you!"

Jaune sighed as Blake and Weiss looked at him with a look of shock and disgust and Jaune stood up strapping on his Katars "I really need to name these things." he then turned to face his teams mates "Oh my god you two are perverts!" before walking down to face down Yang

As he stood before his fellow blonde fist fighter he tried to size up if she was joking or not. When he saw that her eyes were blood red, he realized he is in for a rather bad time and immediately activated his superior Dust Eater reflexes with a tell tale eye glow.

He said he'd only burn dust when it was life and death, and now fit the bill.

Yang came in hard throwing out a 2 jab, straight punch, roundhouse combo at Jaune. Jaune slapped the two Jabs aside, Elbow blocked the straight punch, and was kicked into a wall hard enough to crack it by the round house. Jaune at least was off the wall fast enough to slide around a running hay-maker Yang tried to hit him with and punished her over extending with an elbow to the kidneys followed by a pair straight kicks to the back of her head slamming it into the wall in turn.

He was down to 85% aura. Yang was still at 90%. That worried Jaune quite a bit, but he didn't have the time to linger as she pushed off the wall and followed it with a kick at Jaune's ribs that he was forced to catch with both hands, which left him open to taking a second kick to the side of his head which staggered him and dropped his aura a good ten percent

'Dammit! This wouldn't be draining me so quick if I wasn't running on empty already!' Jaune caught Yang's fist and shoulder slammed her hard into the ground and backed up to get space from Yang and regroup.

Yang kicked off the ground to her feet and saw that Jaune was starting to look winded "What's wrong! You winded already"

Jaune took a bit longer than comfortable to catch his breath before standing up straight, his Dust powers started to fail as his reserves ran out, He felt his aura take a hit as his reserves bottomed out as well, he knew one good hit from her would probably put him in the nurses office. "Actually I think I'm going to Forfeit h-"

He never got to finish as Yang leap up and clocked him in the face with a spinning roundhouse that absolutely collapsed his aura to under ten percent and caused him to crumple to the floor as the color left his world.

Yang stopped "Oh shit! Jaune I didn't hear you!" She leaned down and tried to help Jaune sit up, Jaune didn't notice Glynda approach, only she was were there now.

Jaune blinking "Ah Sorry, I'll speak up next time" as he tried to shake off his growing headache

Glynda spoke up "Mr Arc, what happened, I have never seen someone's Aura collapse like that"

Jaune had to try and think of an excuse on his feet, which was difficult considering he was still trying to remember the steps of how to stand up from the hit "No idea, sorry, I must be... I don't know sorry."

Glynda directed Weiss to help Jaune to the nurses office. Jaune was to disoriented to remember much else past that point.

* * *

When Jaune came to later, the rest of his team had left a note that they would take notes for the rest of the day, and see him back at their dorm, as he sat up he felt a wave of vertigo hit him, his first thought was 'Shit, I'd better go get some Dust in me quick or this is going to start to really suck in a few hours'.

It didn't take him long to get back to his room, his thoughts turned on what his mother once said about dust starvation...

 _It's not a great way to go Jaune, It starts off with you loosing all but your most basic Aura control abilities, and even then your aura will gradually decrease over time. You'll also be in pain while this happens. But if once you start loosing color in your hair, then you might have a week to get some dust or you'll die._

He opted to catch the elevator back up to his dorm floor rather than attempt the stairs, his head was still pounding but he was sure that was because of Yang's boot more than anything else. His dad described the pain of Dust starvation once to him.

 _You know how bad it hurts to miss a few meals, well it's kinda like that, but it's like that if you combined it with the feeling you'd get if you someone with a drinking problem and cut him off cold turkey. Your body needs dust to live Jaune, your dust scent goes hyperactive as you could smell dust anywhere, your body will start to get muscle cramps, and pains. I went through it once, and it's not something I'd wish on anyone._

Jaune got into the room, Weiss and Blake must have stepped out and Yang was snoring on his bed, he say down and reached under his pillow for his Dust box.

He noticed the problem right away, it was too light. He opened it and with a great sense of horror he saw it was empty. He started to look around his bed to see if his Dust fell out, while this was happening Yang rolled over and mumbled "Uh, Jaune, you lose something?"

Jaune took a second to calm himself before asking "Hey Yang did someone borrow some of my yellow dust without asking?"

Yang shrugged sitting up "Not that I know of, why did some-"

Jaune stated "Someone cleared me out. hells bells I'll have to go into down to get some more in the morning."

Yang shaking off the sleep stated "Wait, someone robbed your Dust stash? Who the shit would do that?"

Jaune thought about it out loud "Well I don't know, You use Red dust in your weapons, I don't don't think Blake uses dust in her weapons, Weiss uses a hell of a lot of dust with her weapon but her family owns a fucking dust company... I can't see her doing it"

Jaune thought for a second "Well if it turns out to be someone outside of the team breaking into our room I'll have to report the theft to the headmaster."

Neither Yang nor Jaune heard Weiss and Blake enter as Weiss responded "Theft of what?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Just a short update today, this one really worked me over as I had rewritten and thrown of parts of it three times before I was happy with it, I even cut an entire section that didn't mesh right and would have resulted in some serious OOC issues for most of Jaune's team. So here's the short chapter as written and hope you all enjoy as always today. I'm personally going to kick back and take it easy a bit today.**

Jaune paced the room in anger as his three team mates sat on his bed "Un-fucking-believable Weiss!"

Weiss "I get it, your pissed off, I should ha-" she was cut off

Jaune stopped pacing and shouted "You should of done allot of things!" Jaune then sits down rubbing his head in a bit of pain.

Yang got up and sat next to him "Is your head still bothering you, your Aura-"

Jaune interrupted "Is being predictably inconsistent at the moment I know..."

Blake and Yang exchanged worried glances before Jaune took a deep breathe "Just how long will it take you to replace the dust you stole from me"

Weiss folded her arms around her lap and looked off to the side "It'll take a few weeks. White fang keeps hitting everything that even has a whiff of dust in it" Weiss looks pretty embarrassed "Hell that's the only reason I ran out."

Jaune didn't say anything and kept silent he was thinking however 'Shit, I'd be dead before then' he had to decide if he trusted them enough with his secret.

Jaune looked up "I take it then you asked around and no one had any to sell them?"

Weiss shook her head no.

Jaune then asked, knowing the answer "Do you at least have any of the Dust you took from me left?"

Weiss shook her head "Sorry Jaune, I ran out again so I can't even return any of it."

Jaune's anger flared up again, mostly at the idea that Weiss might be murdering him unintentionally "God dammit Weiss! if you were not my partner your ass would be standing before the headmaster, I doubt your family would be able to bribe your way out of that"

Weiss stood up apologetically "Jaune I swear I-"

Jaune had by that point already made his way to the door, stepped out and slammed it behind him.

* * *

It wasn't long afterwards that Jaune found himself in the Atrium of the school, Scroll in hand dialing his dad back home. If he was lucky they could send something to him by courier, otherwise he was in for a bad time all around.

Around the third ring his dad answered, his voice sounded tired "Jaune what's up buddy, why you calling so late?"

Jaune rubbed his neck "Dad, got a real problem here I could use help with"

His dad chuckled half awake sounding "Who's the lucky lady?"

Jaune shook his head, only his dad would think he managed to knock someone up in a week. "Dad, I'm serious. My dust went missing and I'm running on empty here."

The phone was silent for a second "Good lord Jaune, someone at that school robbed you?"

Jaune sighed into his phone "It's more like borrowed without asking. Just my idiot partner thinking that I wouldn't mind since my gear didn't incorporate it at all"

Jaune's dad groaned into the phone "God dammit, what kind of partner do you have that would do that? Bianca and Olivia never had these problems in Haven."

Jaune's rubbed his neck "My partners a Schnee dad, you can see the problem here?"

Jaune's dad deadpanned "You need to kill her" Their was a pause "Yeah definitely kill her"

Jaune laughed it off "Murder is off the table dad, I don't think the school would appreciate me going that route."

His dad was less amused "Okay so either way we need to figure out how to get you Dust, and quickly right?"

Jaune paced nervously keeping a look out for eavesdroppers "Yeah that's the basic jist of it all"

Jaunce could hear his dad sigh "I'll call a courier for you, in the meanwhile..." Jaune could hear his dad hesitate "I'll send you a contact for a man named Junior, he knows some morally grey sellers, some of them buy stock from us, some who... well don't buy it at all"

Jaune shook his head "How long would the courier take"

His dad went silent "About 2 weeks, if you ran out today you'd be pushing it for too long, you seriously consider what I said as a stop gap until then."

Jaune paced and quietly muttered into his phone "I don't know dad, I'm not sure i'm desperate enough to try hitting up a black market seller for Dust"

His dad voice raised on the phone "Jaune, your a Dust Eater, same as us! You knew you were taking a risk attending a Huntsmen academy, you knew their might be a time you'd have to do something questionable to survive in the city."

Jaune rubs his neck. "I knew that dad, it's not like I don't know what's at stake here, or what will happen if I'm found out."

His dad kept talking "Then go talk to Junior first chance you get, and for gods sake get a new box with a lock on it!"

Jaune shook his head again not liking the idea "Yeah i'll keep it in mind dad, Say hi to mom and the girls for me okay?"

Jaune ended the call, and turned around to catch a glance of a red cloak hiding behind a pillar. He went pale for a second at the idea that Ruby hear his conversation "Ruby?"

Worry flashed on Jaune's face for a moment "Ruby? What are you doing hiding over there?"

Ruby popped out with a noticeable "EEP" before bashfully rubbing her hands while talking "Sorry I wasn't trying to eavesdrop on you or anything... I was going to drop a couple things off for you"

Jaune's expression turned serious "What did you hear."

Ruby went silent and took a step back slightly frightened by Jaune's expression "I-I didn't mean to lis-"

Jaune closed the gap and was almost shouting "What. Did. You. Hear?!"

Ruby wouldn't make eye contact "Look, I just heard that you needed Dust, that it sounded like someone stole the Dust you brought with you, I didn't hear much else other than that"

Jaune relaxed "Okay, okay, sorry I'm having a rough day" Jaune then put a hand on Ruby's shoulder to calm her down "So you said you were dropping a couple things off for me?"

Ruby's face turned bright "Yeah I did!" She reached into her bad and pulled out an all to familiar hooded sweater of Jaune's "Look what I managed to fix up"

Jaune smiled as he was handed the Sweater "Hey how did you replace the sleeve on it?" Jaune looked it over. "Wow this is good, My twin sister Rose would murder me if she found out I trashed it in the first place."

Ruby smiled and pulled out a second hooded sweater "Well I got a plain hoodie the same color and just took the sleeve off of it" She also handed the second sleeveless hoodie "Also I went ahead and wove some Kevlar plates I found laying about into this one so you won't have to wear that chest piece of yours. And you can leave the Pumpkin Pete hoodie here when your out on mission"

Jaune blushed "You really didn't have to do all this, I mean i'll still wear my chest-plate but..."

Ruby smiled "I didn't have to, but I wanted to Jaune." Her eyes shot up "Oh yeah, I wanted to ask, since it's after curfew anyways,. and we'll both end up in detention if were caught, want to sneak over the the blacksmith shop and cut out some blades?

Jaune had the first genuine smile of the day "Honestly, that sounds like fun right now."

* * *

Elsewhere in Campus, Ozpin was also having a late evening when he received a phone call from an old friend.

"James, what do I owe the pleasure this evening." Ozpin spoke into his scroll

"It's strictly business Ozpin, the Atlas council is calling a vote to see about a land purchase from Vale, I want your input on it." James Ironwood spoke into the phone

"Oh? Why call me then, I'm the headmaster of Beacon, I'm not part of Vale's government, well, anymore at least." Ozpin chuckled and took a sip from his drink.

"That's why I'm asking you, this isn't a formal inquiry. But Jacques is riding my ass on this one, I just don't know why he's pushing hard to purchase such a rual parcel of land from vale." James spoke, getting to the point.

Ozpin replied "Can you send me the data on the land he's wanting, i'll look at it."

Ironwood chuckled "It should be in your inbox already"

Ozpin sat down at his desk and pulled up the file, Ozpin admitted that it struck him as odd that Atlas wanted this particular piece of land. "It's not a very large area, they would barely need to redraw the border. I can see why Vale would approve of such a sale on our end, it looks to have little value."

Ozpin then saw what Atlas was offering for the land. "Why are they offering vale this much? This is almost triple what the land would be worth on it's own."

Ozpin could hear frustration in Ironwoods voice. "Yeah but it's Jacques that's pushing for it, so they know something we don't, do you know anyone that would be familiar with that area?"

Ozpin thought about it for a second before pulling a pair of files up "I do actually, if you can put the vote on hold for a few days, I'll make some phone calls and see what I can come up with"

Ironwood chortled "I'm the tie breaker here anyways, I'll buy you as much time as I can." And hung up on his end.

On Ozpin's screen, two names appeared 'Taiyang Xiao Long' and 'Qrow Branwen'


	11. Chapter 11

**Okay so this chapter took a bit of time to write up, not because of the actual writing but I just didn't have the time, I've been getting my kids Halloween costumes ready to go and that took forever to pull off.**

 **Anyways, didn't have a lot to say about this chapter, I did watch the first episode of volume 6, but if your reading this, than odd's are you have too, or you don't want spoilers. Either way that's all I have to say about it besides me saying it looked worlds better than the last couple volumes.**

 **As Always, Enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you with the next.**

Jaune felt sick to his stomach, it had been a few days since he ran out of Dust sure, but that's not what was ailing the young huntsman today.

He was sitting with the His and Ruby's teams eating breakfast, he would occasionally notice one of his teammates glance at him wondering if he should even be up and moving, he was feeling pain in his joints, he had noticeable bags under his eyes. and it physically hurt to _think_ right now.

And that's only the early symptoms.

But it wasn't Dust starvation that was making him feel sick right now, Only he and Blake were noticing it, but the pair were both in their own way staring down Cardin Winchester as he and his team were bullying a bunny eared Fauns nearby. Jaune honestly considered standing up and giving him a piece of his mind. but he had to recognize that even his best condition he couldn't take on all four of Cardin's team in a straight fight.

Well, unless he was able to use his full abilities.

"That fucking asshole, Yang cover me" Jaune started to stand up as his patience broke, only to be stopped by Weiss grabbing his hand.

"Sit down Arc, your not getting expelled for beating down another student unprovoked" Weiss stated firmly "Or in your case, getting beat down"

Jaune reluctantly and painfully sat back down "Sorry, Bigots like that make me sick is all"

The comet hung over the group for a bit. Blake in particular seemed interested in Jaune's statement.

Nora broke the Silence "Well how about you save it for combat class, call him out and work him over then when his team can't interfere!" Nora then grinned mischievously "I mean really break his legs"

Pyrrha leaned to speak as well "I think I could maybe help out with that one as well, use my semblance to throw off his swings"

Weiss grinned "My oh my, am I hearing miss Pyrrha Nikos advocating cheating?"

Jaune flexed his fingers open and close with loud noticeable pops as he tries to work out the stiffness in his hand joints "Call it evening the playing field, or if it makes you happier, an informal cross team building exercise"

Yang looking quite amused by this "Hey i'm all for it if the rest of you are"

Ren snickered a bit "Actually if were really planing this out I feel the need to mention that Cardin has a fatal flaw in his armor that should be exploited" as he held up a sausage link.

Jaune chuckled painfully at this "Gods Ruby, what are you teaching your team?"

Ruby pointed her fork at Jaune and said boldly "How to _Win!_ " before lowering it again "Actually I didn't teach them that at all, that was all Nora"

Nora in her own over enthusiastic way waived and smiled "If your going to lose a fight, at least make them remember it!"

Yang spoke up "Is that why you always seem to work people's kidneys over?"

Nora smiled and simply said "Yup!"

Jaune caught a glance at Blake looking at him, when he turned to look again she was looking away. He decided to file that away for a rainy day he supposed. "Well either way Combat class is coming up, so we had better get ready!"

* * *

Combat class came quickly, but not quickly enough for Jaune, when Glynda was about to announce the first match up Jaune stood up "Cardin, get your worthless sack of shit ass down here!"

Glynda leaned back at the ferocity that Jaune spoke, she knew the Arc boy had not been in physically good shape for a few days now, and she was surprised to see that he was even in class let alone calling out another student for a duel.

Glynda could only accept it "Very well, if Mr arc wants to send himself to the medical ward again today I won't stop him."

Cardin stood up with a confidence menacing air as we walked down to the fighting stage "Well if you _want_ me to have a light day I'm for it." Cardin's team chuckled and shouted for the leader to demolish his Challenger.

Jaune pulled his hood up and popped out his blades "Keep talking asshole, it'll make this feel a whole hell of a lot better"

Glynda didn't even have time to shout for the match to start before Cardin was rushing in with a horizontal wild swing, Jaune knew he couldn't even withstand a single blow in his state and went defensive at first, staying a step out of the reach of the larger students wild uncontrolled swings.

Cardin was working himself into a rage as he shouted after the sixth or seventh failed swing "You going to actually do something you shit or are you just going to keep dodging!"

Jaune kept one eye out into the crowd waiting for a signal, He needed Cardin good and tired out first, When Cardin Slammed down his Mace down into the floor and showed signs of needing to catch his breath, he saw Pyrrha give Jaune a thumbs up letting him know that the time had come.

When Cardin couldn't lift his Mace up nearly fast enough, Jaune came in hard, throwing a mighty bladed hay-maker the larger boy in the face causing him to stagger and leave his legs parted just enough for what was to come next.

Jaune took a step back winded his leg back as far as he could, and kicked Cardin in-between the legs as hard as he could.

Cardin lost grip of his weapon, which Jaune reached out for and caught. propping it on his shoulder he walked over to his kneeling opponent. Cardin was bleeding from a small gash in his face from Jaune's weapon, wearing a face like he was about to vomit from pain.

Jaune then painfully lifted the mace up and slammed it down on the hand Cardin was using to pull on the Faunus's ear earlier with a crunch as his aura dropped to just above the red line. As Cardin screamed out in agony the class went silent Jaune turned to his teammates who looked equally shocked by the level their team leader went. He couldn't let that bother him right now.

Jaune took a knee next to Cardin and said loud enough to be heard "I don't suffer Bigots" before standing up and lifting golf swinging the heave mace across Cardin's head knocking him well into the red for his aura and ending the match.

Once Glynda called the match. The very exhausted and sweating Jaune dropped the mace and took a couple of unsteady steps stumbling steps back as he was hit with a wave of vertigo struck him, he felt every inch of his body screaming in agony at what Jaune just put it through.

Glynda called for Cardin to be collected and taken to the medical wing, and then turned to Jaune "Mr Arc, as you might imagine we are going to be having a discussion with the headmaster about your conduct today."

Jaune Forced his exhausted body straight "I'll see myself there then." As he stepped out.

* * *

Jaune stood silent before the headmaster in what he considered the most imposing office he's ever stood in. Ozpin however seemed more preoccupied with his tablet and his coffee than any casual conversation, making the silence even more difficult for Jaune to handle.

Maybe that was the point. It didn't mater because Glynda came storming in moment later. Glynda stopped directly in Jaune's face and shouted "Mr Arc, I don't know at what point you got the idea in your head that it was acceptable to use _my_ class to work out your personal vendetta's but what happened in there was not acceptable in the slightest!"

Jaune faced forward fixing his eyes on the window behind the headmasters desk "Understood miss Goodwitch"

Glynda poke her finger into Jaune's chest "I don't believe that you do understand, Mr Arc, if it was my decision you would be packing your bags right now!" She jammed the finger painfully into Jaune's chest "As it stands, I'm going to allow the Headmaster to decide your fate!"

Ozpin looked up as he was only now noticing the argument in his class "Yes quite right Ms Goodwitch, it seems we do need to sort out the issue with Mr Arc here"

Ozpin stood up and walked to the other side of his desk never taking his eyes off his tablet, Jaune figured he either had impressive multitasking abilities, or her just didn't have time for this.

Both, Jaune figured both/

Ozpin spoke not making eye contact "Mr Arc I feel I should be fair and allow you to explain why..." Ozpin Glanced at Jaune "In your clearly unwell state, you decided to, it says here, Pulverize half the bones in Mr Winchester's hand, give him a sizable concussion and.." Even Ozpin had to wince at this "Rupture one of Mr Winchesters testicles."

Jaune winced hard "Okay, in my defense, that last one was not part of the plan, total accident."

Ozpin replied "Yes, quite unfortunate, but i'm still waiting Mr Arc."

Jaune sighed "Right... Well earlier today I saw Winchester bullying a Faunus student with the rest of his team. The town I came from had several Faunus clients, some of them were really good people, and I honestly feel like Faunus gets enough crap outside of this campus, to have to put up with it on campus." Jaune paused for a second "Look we have maybe 500 people in my home town, we didn't even have a true militia so we relied on outside assistance from time to time, including certain Faunus groups."

Ozpin didn't look entirely convinced "Yes well that's all fine and well, and why our campus doesn't tolerate racism either, I hope you can appreciate that we can't allow students to take maters into their own hands"

Jaune Kept his face forward "I understand sir"

Ozpin nodded "Good, then you'll understand you'll be spending 2 hours a day for the next week with Ms Goodwitch after class assisting with her paperwork"

Jaune tried to fend off the urge to sigh in relief "Understood sir"

Glynda looked at Ozpin "I don't agree to this of course."

Ozpin "Our medical staff advised that Mr Winchester will be back in class in that amount of time, thanks of course to our impressive medical staff, he will barely have a scar on his face for it. Lets not forget that Mr Winchester did bring this down on himself as well by his actions." Ozpin takes a sip from his coffee "In fact, we should make it clear that Mr Arc's actions are the only reason he himself will still be a student here, as we do tend to expel students for hate crimes."

Glynda was flabbergasted "Very well, Mr arc, see yourself back to your dorm, I don't want to see you out of it till tomorrow."

Jaune left without a work as Glynda stared down Ozpin. The second Jaune left the room Gylnda spoke up "Explain yourself Ozpin, you don't go easy on students like that."

Ozpin spoke up "I was simply impressed with his resolve, not only did he participate in combat class despite his clear physical pain, but he also won his match."

Glynda folded her arms "I suppose you are right, he has a knack for fighting dirty as well, reminds me of Ironwood when the two of us were in school"

Ozpin "I'm also impressed that he was the first student to have someone help interfere with his match without you noticing it."

Glynda's eyes shot wide "He did what?! How!?"

Ozpin spoke up "Miss Nikos used her Semblance on Cardin's weapon"

Glynda scoffed "That dirty son of a bitch!"

Ozpin smiled leaning on his desk "That's the kinda of 'dirty son of a bitch' we were looking for"

Glynda shook her head "You want to bring a first year into our affairs?"

Ozpin looked at her "Keep it under your hat for now, also, if possible, try to see if we can't get him some Yellow Dust, He recently misplaced a supply he came to school with."

Glynda tilted her head "That would take a bit of time, if I might ask why?"

Ozpin spoke in a normal tone "I have a feeling it would help him out a great deal, and we wouldn't want a potential asset come to an early end."

* * *

Jaune sat down on his bed, the only other person in the room with him was Blake who was eyeing him like she was trying to size him up.

She spoke first. "You okay? I know you've been getting sicker"

Jaune put a clammy hand on his stomach and shook his head "It's nothing really, I'm actually starting to feel a bit better"

Blake got up and sat down across from him on Weiss's bed looking at him with a serious expression for several seconds before she spoke again "Why did you go so far today Jaune? Why go out of your way to piss off Glynda for a Faunus you didn't even know?"

Jaune shrugged "I don't know, I mean I knew a few Faunus from home I guess"

Blake looked off to the side "You know you kinda do act like a Faunus Jaune"

Jaune looked at Blake confused "How so?"

Blake looked straight in his eyes "You keep secrets, kinda like some Faunus do."

Jaune shrugged again "I guess everyone has a few secrets they keep Blake."

Blake shook her head at Jaune "True, but you act like your being ruled by your secrets."

Jaune didn't quite know what to say to that, if he had to be honest. "I'm not sure I follow you Blake."

Blake shook her head "It's like your keeping a secret so close to your chest, that you have to plan everything you do around it."

Jaune Tilted from side to side to pop the joints in his neck "I could honestly say the same for you then, your so quiet that we forget your even around sometimes, and I get the impression you like it that way." Jaune leans in close to her face "If we don't get close, we won't look to deep at you."

Blake stammered "I-it's not like that, I'm just not a chatty person, besides even if I was keeping secrets, I would have to have a good reason to do so right?"

Jaune nodded "Hey I get it, I won't pry, besides if it was something you'd want to talk about, you talk about it right?"

Blake went silent and broke eye contact with Jaune

Jaune leaned forward "Well I'll tell you what, you sound like your speaking from experience. You tell me yours I'll tell you mine?"

Blake looked like she was about to speak up but couldn't find the words "I... Well I guess I'm not quite ready for that..."

Jaune forced a pained smile across his exhausted face. "Well, I'm here when your ready okay?"

Blake nodded "Same goes for you Jaune..."

Jaune laid back in his bed and closed his eyes, Blake did notice something out of place with her team leader.

She noticed his hair was starting to lose color in spots.


	12. Chapter 12

**Strap in boys and girls, this one's going to be a doozy, See you next time.**

Jaune could taste blood in his mouth, he grabbed onto the slender blade that was sticking in his stomach, The metal was cold and his blood was warm flowing over his hands.

Jaune, looked up, eyes heavy as his life left him. Bags from his Dust starvation was apparent, his hair had turned colorless due to advanced starvation. He looked into the face of his killer, Weiss looked down at him with contempt as she twisted the blade slicing up Jaune's hands and driving the blade deeper into him.

Weiss's eyes narrowed, a fire was in her eyes, a burning hate threatening to incinerate him, she spoke with disdain "To think a filthy beast like you thought you could be my partner"

* * *

Jaune woke up in a cold sweat, by instinct he grabbed his stomach. Panting heavily he tried to calm himself down. As he sat in his bed, he felt his heart beating out of his chest. He tried to reflect on the nightmare he woke up from. He looked at the time, barely 4 am, he tried to take his mind off of the dream to no avail. His body screamed at him to go back to sleep as his body suffered from severe exhaustion. he was able to smell every gram of dust in the school and it drove him crazy.

His attention was focused inward when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Shocked eyes glanced over at a worried looking Weiss staring at her partner speaking in a soft sleepy voice. "Hey, you okay Jaune?"

Jaune rubbed his head "It was just a nightmare Weiss."

Weiss rubbed his shoulder and back as she moved over to sit on his bed "You want to talk about it?"

Jaune closed his eyes, he pictured the expression on her face in his nightmare. "No I'm good, I'm not going back to sleep any time soon, you can if you need to, I'm going to hit the showers and see about my day"

Jaune moved to stand up but was stopped by Weiss who griped down on his shoulder . "Jaune, I'm serious, were friends right? You know you can tell me anything."

Jaune gently moved Weiss's hand aside "Look, honestly, I'm still pissed off about the Dust thing, also we can't exactly say were friends just because we share a dorm room you know."

Weiss got a hurt expression on her face "I see..." She took her hand off his shoulder "I guess that's fair to be honest, we didn't exactly get off to a great start did we?"

Jaune stood up fighting back vertigo "Honestly, we really didn't." Jaune grabbed a towel and started walking to the restroom.

Weiss still wearing a sad expression on her face "I'm sorry... I really can be a bit of a bitch sometimes."

Jaune stopped looking at a spot on the floor "I can be be a bit of an asshole sometimes as well Weiss. I'm also not the most honest and noble person you'll ever meet"

Weiss nodded "Look, if you need anything, I'm here... Partner."

Jaune nodded at her before hitting the showers.

* * *

A couple hours after Jaune had woken up, Ozpin was busy with some early morning work of his own, sipping coffee he was in a conference call with two former students of his Qrow and Taiyang.

Qrow was speaking "Oz, look, I know we all have bigger issues to look at than some land grab on the borders with Atlas"

"If it makes Ironwood worried, then it makes me worried as well, I know both you and Taiyang here both performed missions in the area after graduation, so I wanted your feedback" Ozpin said looking into his Scroll showing the pairs faces.

Taiyang was the next to speak up "Sure I guess I know that area well enough, it was only about 60 miles away from here. Summer and I went would hunt Grimm in that direction, but there's not much up there except for a small village and an old dust mine"

Ozpin and Qrow stopped and looked their phones Qrow spoke up "Yeah I know that village, shit Tai, is that why they want the land so bad?"

Tai shook his head on the screen "Well it can't be for the mine itself."

Ozpin interjected "I'm not aware of any settlements that far into the wilds, who founded the village"

Tai shrugged "Not vale citizens, I-" Tai paused "Dust Eaters, the village is populated by Dust Eaters"

Qrow swore "Shit, Oz the Schnee's didn't care about the mine or the land, they wanted and excuse for an extermination, Ironwood has to know about this!"

Ozpin was already dialing Ironwood in, he had to be notified, Ironwoods face appeared on the screen, he had a worn out look about him. "Ozpin, what happened."

Ozpin was almost shouting "Ironwood, you need to vote against the land purch-"

Tai interrupted "Holy shit... Look at my feed!"

The other three looked at their various devices, as Tai was filming a flight of high speed transports scorched the sky flying past.

Ironwood spoke up "Damn, looks like drop-ships, they worked faster than I expected. That's what I wanted to warn you about, I tried to delay a public vote, but the bastards went and Railroaded the land purchase though a closed door vote!"

Qrow shouted into his phone "How in the hell did they Mobilize Atlas's forces so quickly? Why did you even allow it!"

Ironwood shouted back "Because their not Atlas military! While I was debating it on the floor, Jacques was bribing anyone he could to have a shadow vote to approve it, He must of hired private military forces at the same time"

Tai was quick to point out "What the fu-" Tai face grew angry "Oz the people at that town are not monsters, hell Patch bought Dust from them before."

Qrow had a horrid realization "Mother of the gods... Ozpin, this is going to only push what of them survive into the enemies hands"

All four of them knew what that Meant "Tai, Qrow, we are powerless to call this off now, it's written into Atlas's laws that Dust Eaters found on Atlas soil are to be exterminated. I want both of you to try and get out there to help survivors if it's possible."

Tai spoke up "I'm already in the truck, I'm dropping off" Before Tai ended the call on his end.

Ironwood was speechless, and didn't meet the other Gazes. "My gods... What did that bastard do."

Qrow was the one to ask "This is not a cheap operation for Schnee, why the hell is he doing this Ironwood?"

Ironwood shook his head "I-I can't claim to know, but to do all this, I can't even send anyone out to help them as I'd be breaking our laws to do something"

Ozpin spoke "Put it on the Back-burner for now, you have other issues that need addressed." Ozpin took a drink from his coffee and focused his thoughts "Qrow, While Tai tries to get their to assist survivors, see what can do on your end to make sure the enemy can't take advantage of this"

Ironwood shook his head "What will you be doing them Ozpin"

Ozpin took a stern gaze "Hopefully preventing a murder."

* * *

It was a few hours later, Jaune was feeling pretty thankful that it was a day off, Ruby of course had called him on his scroll to go out to a coffee shop in Vale which, after waking up so early he couldn't really refuse.

The coffee shop in question, a perky affair with brightly colored walls and catchy music seemed to almost designed to wake a person who say down in their up.

"So what's up Ruby? I mean I don't mind a girl buying me coffee after a rough night, but we normally have these chats on campus." Jaune said nursing a coffee.

"Well yeah, but you look like you haven't slept in weeks, which is weird because I know for a fact you sleep at night" Ruby said sipping from her own cup.

Jaune let that sink in for a second before responding "So are we like dating now? Or did you lure me here so you can confess your stalking me in public so I won't freak out?"

Ruby laughed in her own adorkible way "No! I mean your nice and all, but you look just a bit to much like my dad."

Jaune laughed himself into a coughing fit "Well your dad must be a handsome guy"

Ruby stuck her tongue out at him playfully. Jaune shook his head at her. "But seriously Ruby, what's going on that we had to talk off campus"

Ruby Reached into her bag "Well besides wanting to get out of the dorms for a while, I did want to talk to you about something away from our teams"

Jaune took a sip from his drink "Yeah sure what's going on?"

Ruby set a small bag on the table and slid it to him, He could smell it before he opened it, yellow dust! It only felt like a single fingers worth "Ruby how did you...?"

Ruby smiles warmly "Well it took a bit of work, I have thunder rounds for my sniper rifle, I just took the rounds apart to get the dust out"

Jaune shook his head "Hey you didn't have to go that far just for me you know."

Ruby shook her head "Well, did I ever tell you I'm from an island called Patch, pretty secluded, lots of woods and not much else there except for Signal where my dad teaches." Ruby looked at her coffee "About 60 miles or so from us on the mainland. their's a mining village, it's not on the maps anywhere, but well..."

Jaune looked at Ruby, not sure where she was going with this. "Ruby I-"

Ruby cut him off "Well the thing is Jaune, the town was full of Dust Eaters, I mean it was smaller than Patch. But a few years before I was born, my Mom and Dad teamed up with a couple Dust Eaters from that village to take out this huge nest of Grimm that had formed on the island." Ruby smiled thinking back at the time her dad told the story "The way dad tells it, our sleepy little village might not even exist if it wasn't for them."

Jaune tried to hide his worried expression. "Well, I mean, cool, but why tell me this?"

Ruby smiled and put a hand over his "Well, I mean you are a Dust Eater right?"

Jaune's face went pale, but Ruby kept talking "Jaune, I noticed you didn't start getting sick until your dust went missing, and I know Dust eaters need dust to live... I'm not stupid Jaune."

Jaune had to make a choice, deny it and risk alienating her, or come clean and risk it all.

"Well, I mean your pretty smart Ruby, but, Y-yeah I'm one, a Dust Eater" Jaune's voice cracked while talking.

Ruby smiled the biggest smile she could "Don't worry, I won't tell a soul, and if you need help with dust again, you tell me and i'll do my best"

Jaune was beside himself, and his voice cracked when he spoke "Shit Ruby, just like that huh?"

Ruby smile "Yeah just like that, were friends right?"

Jaune smiled back "Besties!"

Ruby gestured at the lady behind the counter "I'll distract them, and you eat up real fast" she stood up and walked over the counter to ask about getting cookies for the road, Jaune took a moment to quickly scarf down the yellow dust she gave him. Just as he was finishing he just happened to glance up at the TV.

The headline stated " _Breaking News, Atlas Attacks Mining Settlement"_. Jaune's eyes went wide as he felt his world crashing down. With Ruby's back turned he stood up leaving his half drunk coffee behind and went into an alley to make a phone call. The first thing he did was try to call his father. Jaune begged himself and any gods listening that his family was okay.

It wasn't until the 5th ring that his father answered "Jaune! Is that you?!"

"Dad what the fuck happened!" Jaune all but shouted into his phone.

Jaune's dad sounded exhausted, and broken "Jaune we still don't know... The town was lost, we barely made it out alive... We lost a lot of people Jaune... Transports with troops buzzed the town and landed on the outskirts."

Jaune's face went pale as he stumbled back into a wall. "Oh Gods, Dad, do we know how many people were lost?"

Jaune's father didn't answer right away, and when he did it was in a heart-wrenching tone "Not everyone was accounted for son, but best estimate is.." His father paused "Maybe about a third of the town is gone. We slaughtered the Mercs to a man, but... it was too many."

Jaune leaning against the wall, he didn't want to ask, but he knew he had too "Dad... did... did we loose anyone?"

Jaune could tell in the way his dad spoke next, that his heart was breaking, it was a tone filled with a crushing sorrow, and a burning rage. "Your mom... Well she's going to live, but she's lost a leg..." Jaune could hear a pause, his own heart was cracking at his fathers words "Your twin sister Rose, and little Jade, they were playing in the outskirts when they arrived... They... Gods damn them... Gods damn then."

The news hit like a brick to the head, Jaune slide down the wall to a sitting position, His twin sister, and his youngest sister were both killed, his mom was crippled...

Jaune's sorrow turned to quickly to rage "Do you want me to come back dad?"

Jaune's dad's voice turn to rage as well "No, stay where your at now, at the school, your safe there. Once we get our injured and those of us who can't fight somewhere safe and hidden, were going to make the bastards pay."

"I want to help dad, I can fight with you." Jaune protested

"You can help by making sure your still in class so you don't raise suspicion, I have to go Jaune, I have a friend named Adam I'm going to meet up with, and were going to plan a few major raid against the SDC in retaliation." Jaune's dad had a commanding tone that gave Jaune pause, he's never in his life heard his dad speak like this.

"So you want me to lay low? My partner is part of the family that just killed two of my sisters, how the fuck do I lay low with that?" Jaune protested

"Find a way gods dammit, I refuse to loose another child today, if we can find a way for you to help we will let you know, until then lay low!" Jaune's dad ordered.

Jaune just ended the call at that point, he didn't say if he planed on listening to his command or not. But he knew he wasn't just going to sit and do nothing.

As he stood up and turned around, wiping the tears from his face, he saw ruby's also tear streak face staring back at him.

"Lets go back Ruby" Was the last thing Jaune said at all for the rest of the morning.


	13. Chapter 13

**So a bit of house cleaning for this chapter, this one did come up short as I honestly needed to use a chapter to set up a few story lines that would spring off from the events of the last chapter, and honestly, I did want to show off just what a Dust Eater could do when cut loose, and to show how, as the last chapter implied the Dust Eaters managed to not be completely wiped out by the last battle. I did set up hard limit to what a Dust Eater can and can not do before writing the story. Most of the dust fueled powers are either channeled through the surface of their skin, or are projected via the fur on their bodies (Think Tobi-Kadachi from monster hunter). I do hope that comes off strongly in this chapter, but let me know.**

 **I did also want to address concerns about the apparent plot-hole created in the last couple chapters with Atlas buying a parcel of land from Vale. Their is a real world history of foreign companies and organizations buying land in other nations territory. one example that comes to mind would be say, A Japanese car company buying land to build a factory in America. Also if you say google "foreign investments buying mining" you actually get articles about say China, purchasing mining rights in say, Australia, which is not a small distance away. It's not an impossible stretch at that point to imagine that in the current canon political situations of the 4 kingdoms of Remnant, that a financially unstable Vale wouldn't mind selling a relativity useless parcel of land to Atlas to strengthen the bonds between the once Waring kingdoms. As for the subject of the "shadow mercs". Well I mean it's not something that appears in canon at all I'll admit, but we have characters like Mercury who was stated to be the son of an assassin. Furthermore huntsmen themselves could almost be seen as a sort of super mercenary in their own right in many ways. Again it's not impossible, even if I am stretching canon quite a bit. Also the Mercs were their to prevent a plot hole in that Ironwood commands the Atlas army, and was working with Ozpin to prevent, or at least, investigate the land sale. Ironwood wouldn't help Oz while planing on deploying a military strike at the same time, hence the Mercs.**

 **Now if you want to jump on my ass for something, jump on it for me having to rewrite part of the last chapter because I forgot that Patch was an island for a hot minute or two.**

 _A few hours ago_.

The world was on fire, or at least for Mina Arc it sure a hell felt like it. All around her she could hear the sounds if fighting and screaming, Mina was in her true form clawed fingers and red scales went up to her sleeveless shoulders, her feet were the same. Silver patches of fur were on both of her forearms and well as her ankles. Her face and head remained the same save for two horns that sweep up and over her head hugging her scalp.

As she ran through the burning town, she had one goal in mind, two of her daughters were missing in the fields and she would find them. she ran past several small battles, she glanced over at the body of a while scaled Dust Eater laying face down in their own blood. She passed by a Dust eater group collecting dust in their hands to fling at the airborne transports. One transport had already been struck fatally in an engine pod and was coming screaming to the ground in a nearby field.

She hurried as quickly as her own legs could carry her, faster than a normal person, she could only hope she was fast enough to save her daughters, a pair of Solders stood in her path leveled rifles at her getting ready to fire at her.

"Get the fuck out of my way!" She fueled her Red dust power into her arm, as the dust fed into her arm, the fur on her arm began to glow a burning red as she quickly stopped, charged up a fireball and flung it at the pair of solders.

By the time the solders each managed to get a couple shots off, they were already incinerated as the burning flames scorched the ground they stood on into a heated slag, and little remained of the solders but burning and melting metal.

Mina was also not so lucky, she gripped her side where a lucky shot grazed her. "I have to keep moving, they need me... My daughters need me!"

She forced back the pain and kept running, She knew her husband was fighting elsewhere with the Militia, and she knew the rest of the kids were safe for now.

* * *

When she made it to where her kids were, she was horrified, there was a dozen men standing around the pair of them, rose was already down, not moving, and blood pooling under her head, her other daughter was standing there in her true form, still to young to hide her Dust Eater traits.

As Mina ran to her kids, she could only watch in absolute horror as one of the solders put a revolver to her small head, she could hear the solder apologetically say "Don't hate me kid." Before pulling the trigger.

All sounds, smells, the world itself, disappeared from Mina's vision as she watched little Jade fall backwards lifeless.

She felt a rage she never knew she had, her body began to heat up, her eyes began to glow red, the fur on her body began to glow as well, as she let out a primal scream that the startled solders swore could be heard across the entire town. she threw herself at the solders. the first one she reached, the one who shot her daughter could barely manage an "Oh f-" Before she drove her clawed hand through the man, his armor melting around her hand as the heat she produced cooked the solder from the inside.

She turned and threw the body at the solder who was raising his weapon to shoot her knocking him down. Another solder went down holding his throat as she savagely clawed the man's throat turning any fabric and metal between her claws and the man into a burning slag that flew off the man.

She felt a pair of shots strike her in the back as a pair of her enemies came around and started to fight back, she turned to them, swiping her hand and sending a wave of burning dust fire at the pair. Neither solder had the time to react as the super heated air torched them burning them away into ash in only a couple seconds.

A couple of the other soldiers tried to run, one shouted into a hand held radio for reinforcements, the others kept shooting at Mina. With a primal scream she released a wave of fire in all directions that flash fried her daughters killers to the man.

Badly wounded, and still in a state of rage, she saw a transport, probably a gunship flying at her, putting her hands together, the glow in her eyes dimmed as her dust reserves were beginning to run low, she started to accumulate dust through the fur on her arms and into her hands, willing it into a powerful dense ball of flame.

The gunship started shooting at her first, a single round struck her in the right leg as she threw the burning sphere at the transport. As Mina fell in pain she watched the sphere hit it's mark, center mass, the fire melting and eating through the hull of the vehicle burning out important components before the transport itself exploded as the heat ignited the munitions inside of it.

As she fell she saw to her horror that her leg where she was hit was gone. She imagined so would she soon enough.

"I'm coming babies, I sent the bad men to hell for you both." she said as the world went dark for her.

* * *

 _Back in the present_

Ozpin closed the news feed, he knew quite well that one student of his was going to return with a fury he has only seen in few others in his incredibly long life.

He frankly didn't have time for this crap. He should be concerning himself with the Fall Maiden, not a student with a vendetta. When he received a notification on his scroll that Mr Arc and Ms Rose had both returned to the campus, he dispatched a discreet drone to monitor the young Dust Eaters return.

While he waited for the drone's feed to pick up the young boy he went to a discreet panel in the wall of his office and opened it up, he pulled out a belt with a holster and a Kevlar vest that fit discreetly under his usual wardrobe.

His scroll went off, Glynda called he answered while putting on his armor "Glynda now is not the best time for me to talk."

Glynda spoke anyways "I just wanted to go over my plans for the class trip to forever fall, it's coming up rather quickly."

Ozpin was watching the drone's feed, Ruby had split off from Jaune, he noted that the boy had a look on his face he couldn't read, he noticed allot of the color had returned to his hair. Ah so the boy had managed to get Dust.

Ozpin's concerns were raised up to eleven though when on the camera feed, the blank expression on his face turned into anger as he looked up at the drone, the last thing the drone's feed saw was a flash of yellow and then static.

"Glynda, call me back in an hour, we'll talk then." Ozpin said as he put his scarf on and stepped into his elevator.

Jaune walked into the Atrium without a purpose, his mind screaming at him in a rage to just find the Schnee bitch, kill her and flee for his family, but even if he had a small amount of dust in him pushing back the worst of his dust starvation, he was in no way shape to try and fight even a Hunter in training quite yet.

As he entered the Atrium hood pulled up, he was surprised to see the Headmaster standing there almost as if he was waiting for him, cane in hand.

"Ah just the student I was hoping to bump into" Ozpin holding his cane not unlike a swordsmen would hold his sword sheath

Jaune with a fire in his voice "Can I help _Sir._ "

Ozpin tried to put on a warm but unconvincing smile "I believe I can help you, you seem to have forgotten that students are not allowed to carry their weapons on campus outside of combat class"

Jaune's leaned into a defensive stance, surely Ozpin wasn't keeping tabs on him enough to know what he was thinking... right? Jaune spoke up "Must of slipped my mind, let me grab something from my dorm room then I'll stow my gear in the locker after"

Ozpin's voice turned stern "Maybe before you did that then, you can indulge me for a moment."

"I honestly do not have the time at the moment sir" Jaune made to step out.

A shutter leading to the dorm hall close as Jaune walked towards it. "At my school, you will make time, Mr Arc."

Jaune clinched his fists, he wasn't sure he could even take Weiss down as he stood, let alone the headmaster. "What do you want Headmaster?"

Ozpin twirled his cane in his offhand "You look like you could use some assistance blowing off steam, and I occasionally enjoy the chance to personally assess my students fighting abilities, care for a friendly spar?"

Jaune thought to himself 'Oh this won't be friendly you son of a bitch' As he turned to face the headmaster.

* * *

Far away on a ferry dock, Julius Arc stood next to a man with scraggly blonde hair. A huntsman he only learned was named Taiyang. the Hunter had promised them save haven for this clan's wounded.

"I don't think you should be doing this Julius. Your going to start a war with Atlas at this rate" Taiyang pleaded to The Dust eater.

The Taller White haired man stroked his beard thinking "That's where your wrong Taiyang, Atlas has been at war with various factions for years now, we'd just be one more rock in the pile"

Taiyang shook his head in frustration "Who will protect your injured, I can get them to Patch to recover but I can't-"

Julius scoffed "I won't be taking all our warriors with us, I only need my ten strongest. My wife is not even a warrior, yet she slew over a dozen men today."

Taiyang shouted back "Your wife is in a coma that she still might not wake up from, please see reason, you can not afford to turn the rest of Remnant against you!"

Julius turned his back on Taiyang "Remnant has been against us since the Schnee's first extermination" He started to walk away "Please keep them safe Taiyang"

Taiyang looked on in concern as the ferry finally started to pull into the station.

 **So end of the chapter final notes, so we now have set up a good number of plot lines that I want to explore, We have Jaune's freshly reopened issues with Weiss. The Dust eaters going to war with the SDC, Taiyang trying to protect the injured Dust eaters. We maybe even have a good story line going with Ironwood and Jacques over the later going behind the former's back? Either way, the Prologue, after 13 chapters, is basically over, and the story as planed can not kick off. Expect me to also finally be able to work in a few characters that have been absent up till now as well. See you all next time.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Okay before we get started, chapter 13 was uploaded and I suspect it didn't send out notifications to people following this story, if you have not read Chapter 13, feel free to go back and do so, otherwise your going to get rather lost rather quickly. Also apologies in advance if this chapter seems a bit rough, proofreading was done by committee today, and half of the committee was my 2 year old daughter shoving things in my face the whole time.**

 **I have been tentatively putting a bit of work into a second Fanfic for Ruby that I don't want to really get to deep into discussing that right now, but I figured a second fic would occupy me when I get a writing bug from updating this one to often and causing notifications to fail like it has twice now. I will say it will be a drastic departure from canon into "Hard Au" Territory, and hopefully will pan out as well as Dust Eater has so far.**

 **Either way, I do appreciate the feedback I've been receiving and I hope you all have a great rest of your day, and see you all next chapter!**

* * *

Jaune stood before the Headmaster in a dueling ring, Jaune took a few moments to size up the fighting ring. The ring was hexagonal in shape, covering and area of roughly 750 square feet, 30 feet across. He saw bleachers in a full circle around the ring, he was told this was the dueling ring for the upper classes.

He knew how much room he had to work with "So is it normal to drag students off the brawl with?" Jaune spoke with an unconcerned tone as he was trying to rattle the Headmaster

"It's not without precinct Mr Arc, shall we begin?" Ozpin said in a almost jovial tone.

Jaune flexed his wrists popping the blades out and with a tone of barely controlled anger "Lets!"

As Jaune rushed in, Ozpin took up a fencing stance, one arm held firmly behind his back, Jaune lashed out with a series of wide sweeping strikes with both hands to try and rake his blades against the head master, only to be repelled each time as the headmaster artfully parried each strike, making no attempt to strike back in turn.

"Mr Arc, I thought you would be taking this seriously? where is the fire you used against Cardin?" Ozpin taunted.

Jaune started to Mix it up, working in knee strikes, and short jabs into his effort to break the defense of the headmaster, but the stubborn old man kept him at bay with side steps and parries with his cane, twirling it around like he was doing a dance routine in a rainstorm.

When Ozpin finally thrust out with his cane at Jaune's chest Jaune palm struck the cane aside with his left arm and then countered with his left elbow almost catching the headmaster in the stomach if Oz had not employed a quick elbow block of his own.

"Your damn good, I'll give you that" Jaune confessed

Ozpin chided the young Arc "No, your holding back too much, like your trying to save your anger and strength for another." Ozpin dashed in closing the distance and let out a series of jabs with his cane the shattered Jaune's attempts at defense and sent him stumbling back.

Ozpin spun and flourished his cane "Now, where did this anger come from? I wonder"

Jaune ran in and with a speed that threatened to catch the headmaster of guard he rushed in with a forceful gut punch that would have left a bloody hole in the Headmaster if not for the headmasters Armored vest.

Ozpin smiled, this is what he wanted, he didn't want the boy to half ass this fight, he wanted him to spend his rage on this battle. "Oh Mr Arc, do hope that you can do better than that, I'm starting to question how you expect to achieve anything at this school with such mediocre strength"

Jaune Gritted his teeth "You don't know _Shit_ about my strength!" and charged in leaping up and attempted a leaping ax-kick down on the headmasters head, Ozpin simply raised his can and stopped the strike dead in it's tracks, Ozpin's arm barely moved from it.

"Your lack of strength will only get those close to you killed if you try to protect them, or is it your own weakness that is causing this anger in you, are you so upset that your impotence won't even allow you strike down an old man with a cane?" Ozpin said in a mocking tone.

It's said that their's few things in this world more frightening than a pissed off Grim, they also say that an upset Salem, or a enraged Maiden is no walk in the park either.

But they don't tell tales of a Dust Eaters rage, because things don't tend to survive the encounter to tell the tale.

Jaune let out a bestial howl as his body sheathed itself in electric power and he charged the headmaster, Jaune threw a single straight punch that Ozpin was forced to block with both hands on his Cane, Seeing an Opening he side-kicked the Headmaster in the ribs and sent him flying into the stands with a crash.

Ozpin stood up with a cough "Good, Good, Let's see this power of yours" Ozpin's speed increased to the point that despite only looking to have taken a single step, he was back in Jaune's face swinging his cane at the young dust eater. Jaune tried to block the strike, but the force of the strike was still enough to send the Dust Eater flying into the stands crashing through some seats.

Once Jaune stood back up, he was blind to the world from rage, he had given up on pretense and had assumed his True form, Golden scales running up his arms and lets, Horns adorning his brow, and his eyes glowing with electricity. Cracking with Lightning he charged at the head master threatening to obliterate the Head master with a fierce-some rending claw strike.

The force of the mutual Blows as Ozpin met his strike with one of his own caused the ground to shake, and chairs to tip over across the room.

Ozpin laid several strong strikes with his cane on the arms and sides of Jaune, but it took Jaune grabbing Ozpin by his arm and feeding an electrical charge through his hand to bring Ozpin to a screaming stop as the electricity threatened to overwhelm his nervous system.

But that's all Jaune had left, he was still running on only scraps of dust, and his attempt to force a quick end the duel resulting him only exhausting his dust stores just as quick. Utterly exhausted he drooped to his knees as Ozpin struck the boy back with a blow to the head with his cane.

Ozpin didn't even realize he had won the dual due for a moment and was about to club Jaune in the back of his skull when he saw that the boy had hit his limit. He quickly composed himself "Interesting, I'll make it a point to not underestimate Dust Eaters in the Future."

Jaune gasping for breath and slipping back into his human form. "So... What now, Expulsion? Or are you going to find me a cage to live in before you pass me off to Atlas?"

Ozpin cocked and eyebrow as he corrected his tie glasses "Mr Arc, I do recall telling you that we do not tolerate bigotry in this school, even for your kind, but I imagine I can better understand where this rage came from."

Jaune didn't make and effort to stand, only covering his face with his hand. "If I was there, Maybe it would of been different... May-"

"Maybe in your largely untrained state would have ended up dead" Ozpin interrupted "You have the raw talent for battle, and your abilities would give you a strong edge in most conflicts, but your not a God, or Invincible"

"So fucking what, who gives a damn about getting the strength to protect my family if Atlas fucking kills them all before I graduate!?" Jaune shouted as he stood the tears he held back with rage finally flowing free.

Ozpin wore a moment of shock on his face realizing what the young man was saying "You lost someone today didn't you?"

Jaune openly weeping now choked out a pained "My twin sister, and my youngest sister.."

Ozpin did the only thing that felt right to do at the moment and pulled the youth into a hug "I'm so very sorry for your loss Mr Arc"

"I'm going to find a way to make those bastards pay, every last one of them!" Jaune screamed into Ozpin's shoulder

Ozpin in the most calming voice he could muster given the amount of adrenaline in his system "You could make them pay by taking revenge, stealing a daughter for two sisters, but their might be a better way Mr Arc."

Jaune bitterly spat out "Oh this should be good, how the fuck do you propose I do that then?"

Ozpin pulled the young man away from him and looked him in the eyes "To be better than them, to not let your pain and hate for them turn you away from what you could be." Ozpin stepped back and started walking around the rather exhausted and upset Jaune "You have the potential to be, perhaps one of the greatest huntsmen to ever walk the surface of Remnant, you have a power inside of you that could change lives"

"A quarter of the world would kill me where I stood for it!" Jaune quickly retorted "Including my own partner!"

Ozpin recomposed now turned to him and said "It's possible, yes, but I intend to train you to be able to defend yourself if that day ever comes." Ozpin walked up to the boy and fixed his collar "But, I can only do that, if I believe you will not attempt to take her life."

"I think our last spar here showed that I could pretty easily defend my self from _her_ " Jaune retorted

"Then think of it this way, you are in the position to show that Dust Eaters are not the feral beasts spoken of in the Watts Report, what would shock the world more, than the reveal that the partner of the heir of the Schnee dust company, and her team leader that led his team to graduation, was a Dust Eater trying to show the lie they all believed?" Ozpin smiled "Your revenge could be used to protect your entire race potentially."

Jaune shook his head and paced "My father is going to start a war against the SDC, by the time I graduate the _world_ will be our enemy!" Jaune sighed out in frustration "I might damn well be the only one left by then"

Ozpin walked over and put a calming hand on his shoulder "We'll cross that bridge when it happens, you just need to worry about being the best you can be, in the here and now."

Jaune nodded "Fine, I'll go all in, hell you might be right. I'll keep her breathing..." He stepped away from Ozpin "but I sure as hell don't have to be her friend, I still reserve the right to hate the name she carries"

Ozpin nodded "Your hate can be a powerful motivator to push yourself to greatness, as long as it doesn't consume you." Ozpin waved the training hall doors open "I think this private lesson has gone on for long enough, thank you, Jaune, for indulging me today"

Jaune nodded out a thank you in return and stepped out into the hall

Ozpin opened his scroll and found it had been shorted out in the fighting, he sighed and made a mental note to have Glynda come and fix the room later.

* * *

It was 20 minutes later, still early afternoon when Jaune, exhausted, emotionally and physically drained, made it to his room, when he dropped his gear off at his locker, he found that someone had left a moderate sized box of yellow dust in his locker. Jaune thought 'Ozpin you bastard, you knew what I was from the start!" for Jaune, this was not a comfortable thought however, it meant that now two people knew his secret, and he could only trust one of them.

He stopped at the door when the thought that he needed to wash his Pumpkin Pete hoodie crossed his mind and his thoughts were flooded with memories of Rose, He took several long moments to bury the emotions that was threatening to overwhelm him again. He had no doubt that the rest of his team learned of the attack, he had already heard murmurs from fellow students in the hall about it.

He thought 'Bury your emotions for them, grieve when your alone, I can't afford to have my secret spread further' as he stepped in to the room. The first face he saw was Yang's followed by Blake's and finally _Schnee's_.

"Hey they you are, where the hell did you disappear to all morning?" Yang spoke up first "We were talking about doing a run down to the woods this afternoon for training, _if_ you ever showed up."

The trio looked at him directly, he gave them an answer "Ruby dragged me into town, I didn't sleep to hot last night either"

Weiss scoffed "Well we still need to keep our performance up if we want to get top marks in class, you still have a long way to go if you want to be on our level"

Jaune clinched his fists just hearing her voice, this was going to be harder than he thought "I had to bail your ass out during the initiation, if anything, you need training in the woods far more than I do!"

Weiss was taken aback "Says the person that barely fought _Winchester_ to a stand still, and lets not forget the no holds beat-down Yang gave you, I expect for more from my partner Jaune."

Jaune was about to let her have it, but Ozpin's words rang in his ears louder than the voice crying out for revenge, Blake and Yang could tell something was off with there team leader. "Then why don't you go fuck off and play leader for a while, and lead the rest of the team on a field trip while I catch up on sleep."

Yang and Blake winced at the tone Jaune took as the their team leader stared down Weiss, almost as if he was waiting on her to given him a reason to rip into her.

Weiss took the bait "Please, I've been more a leader to this team as of late than you have, maybe I should!" Weiss jabbed him in the chest "I really don't even know what the hell your problem has been today, but you need to get over it whatever it is."

Before Jaune had a chance to say something that he'd regret later, Blake stepped in "Hey, Weiss, back off, Yang and I can see Jaune's not okay, give him a break."

Weiss brushed off Blake, although she was talking to Blake, she was in Jaune's face while she talked "Team leaders, don't get breaks, they have to be there for the team at all times, and Jaune has been a _failure_ in that department!" She jabbed him in the chest "And I for one will not allow this team to fail because of it's leader"

Jaune leaned into the face of the shorter girl and said, in as neutral tone as he could muster at the moment "If you would stop being your last name for 30 seconds, and listened to your teammates instead to trying to tell them what they want, you might learn something about leadership."

Jaune turned to Yang and Blake "Team vote, _Schnee_ suggests that we go training in the woods, do you agree or do you have any alternate ideas?"

Yang spoke up "Honestly, I mean if it was still in the morning, then yeah, the woods sounds fine, but now i'm just in the mood for lunch"

Blake followed up "Yeah, I mean I agree that field training is important, I don't see that wearing ourselves out slaughtering Grim without a purpose would gain us anything right now."

Jaune turned to Weiss "Alternate suggestion, We eat lunch, then run laps around the school track for an hour, we'll get the same amount of exercise doing that as an afternoon in the woods, and we won't be waist deep in Beowolfs during _Mating season_ "

Yang and Blake both seemed okay with the idea, Weiss reluctantly agreed. Jaune spoke up "Then you guys go eat and wake me up after lunch so we can go jog, I'm more tired than hungry right now."

Yang and Blake both walked out, Weiss remained behind as Jaune pealed off his coat to lay down Weiss waited until it was just the two of them to speak up "What happened today, your not normally this aggressively dickish?"

Jaune had laid down on his side on his bed not facing Weiss, trying to force back his anger and hurt. "Nothing... Nothing happened..."

Weiss just look at his back, she could tell something terrible must have happened, and couldn't imagine why Jaune, who was a normally open book, was so unreadable right now. Nor did she understand why for all the hell she throws at him to motivate him into action, she felt this odd need for approval from him.

Weiss frowned at his back "Alright Jaune, if you need to talk, you know where to find me okay?"

Weiss stepped out of his room, leaving Jaune with his thoughts, he settled into a short nap, as let himself become lost in the events of the day so far.


	15. Chapter 15: Yang

**Well we finally got ourselves a Yang focused chapter, being honest in the teams current state Yang would be the most likely to have been inclined to do a dig into Jaune's issue, as Blake is still to wrapped up in her own web of secrets, and Weiss was still Season 1 weiss. Either way I didn't have a whole lot to add to this, so I hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

If you were to ask any member of Jaune's team how life in the dorm room was the last few weeks, three of the four occupants would say it was some variation on the words "Tense" or "Strained". None would point to a single unresolved issue, but it was true that their team leader had been spending less and less time with them over time.

So when Yang approached Jaune in private, while he was reviewing notes from his classes earlier in the day and being his 'Typically"quiet self, she had hoped to coax an answer out of the boy. Yang tried to tease a response out of him earlier in the week to absolutely no luck what so ever. So she was going to try a different approach.

Yang say down on the bed, put a hand on his ankle and smiled "So, you want to tell me what's on your mind Jaune?"

Jaune glanced around the room at the rest of the team looking like they were not trying to pay attention to them. "Not a whole lot Yang, did you need something?"

Yang narrowed her eyes at him and started rubbing his ankle wearing a flirty smile "I guess my question, is do _you_ need something?" Yang caught a disapproving eye-roll from Weiss who was _so not_ paying attention to the pair of them right now.

Jaune peered over his notes with a raised eyebrow, he decided to think it over for a second "Well there is one thing that's been really weighing on me lately..."

Yang got an excited grin on her face, the other two girls in the room started to _not listen_ more intently. "Oh, that's troubling you?"

"Well I was just wondering, Am I the only person that, after they take a dump, they look back at the toilet to examine their creation with weird sense of satisfaction?" Jaune deadpanned.

Yang took her hand off his ankle in disgust, the other girls fell out of their seats, Jaune started snickering quietly to himself. "Jaune..." Yang asked "What the actual fuck is wrong with you?"

Jaune smirked "Don't stare into the Abyss Yang, it'll stare back."

Weiss finally spoke up "Right, so anyways, we should really be discussing the field trip to Forever Fall coming up in a few days."

Jaune tossed a printout he had folded into the back of his note book "I made a list of recommended supplies for the mission already, the basics are to wear heavy thick gloves as red sap even if your not allergic to it will stick to your hands like super glue, and to wear some kind of protection for the Rapier Wasps that are attracted to red sap."

Yang smirked as this was the most Jaune had said in a couple weeks at one time "Go on boss, what else do we need?"

Jaune kept talking but not looking up from his notebook "I recommend comfortable clothing, Schnee needs to wear pants and boots in particular. The Bullheads will drop us off about 5 miles from our destination and we are expecting to be out overnight so we should pack two days of rations, socks, underwear, toiletries, and a burn bucket to dispose of waste items. I also included a recipe for a nature bar that is high in nutrition and can be made of ingredients native to the forest, but don't expect it to taste great."

Yang wedged her self behind Jaune and started rubbing his shoulders "I'm impressed, you almost thought of everything." feeling the knots in his shoulders instantly

Yang smirked and said into his ear "You forgot sleeping bags and tents?"

Jaune shook his head. "Nah, weathers supposed to be clear for the next few days while were out there, and the weather is warm enough that we don't need sleeping bags."

Blake shrugged "Well he's not wrong"

Weiss chimed in "Oh heck no, I am not sleeping in the dirt, I'll carry my sleeping bag thank you"

Jaune tilted his head at Weiss "Really? Your not going to need it, your not always going to have the ability to haul a full camping set out into the wilds."

Weiss shook her head "Get real Jaune, do you really expect us to not need our sleeping bags out their?"

Jaune unconsciously leaned forward when Yang started rubbing hands on his tense neck "Well I never needed one when I used to go out camping with my sister Ro-" Jaune stopped himself, and Yang felt his entire body stiffen in her hands. Jaune shook it off quickly but she could tell that this was a sore subject for him, something she'd want to look into later.

"Anyways, if you really feel like you need a bag, go ahead, I'm not going to stop you" Jaune said finishing his thought.

Yang filed the conversation away for later.

* * *

Yang later met up with her sister, she caught Ruby in one of her favorite places on the school, the weapon labs. Yang was hoping that if she picked her sisters brain on things she could maybe try to sort out what has been bothering her team leader lately.

Yang hoped up on the table her sister was working on, threatening to scatter weapon parts all over the table causing ruby to quickly throw her self on the table to prevent parts of her precious weapon from being lost.

"Jeez Yang, be careful!" Ruby said as she carefully checked work area to make sure every thing was where she left it

"Working on Crescent Rose again?" Yang smiled watching her sister work on her precious weapon

Ruby gleefully replied "Always, I'm learning so much here that I'm always thinking of ways to make my baby here better, Jaune kinda gave me an idea for setting up dust channels in the blade so I can channel dust into it." Ruby was practically floating off the floor with the mere idea at how much more awesome her weapon could become.

Yang narrowed her eyes and got a tell tale smirk on her face. "Speaking of Vomit boy, you two have been getting close lately haven't you?"

Ruby got a puzzled look on her face "What do you mean?"

Yang looked ruby up and down, paying attention to the far too big for her hooded sweater she was wearing, noting how the sweater was dropping below her hips and she had to rubber band off the shelves to see her own hands

"Well your wearing his hoodie for starters" Yang teased at her little sister.

Ruby looked puzzled "So? I borrowed it from him when we were out jogging and talking about idea's for our teams"

Yang smirked and leaned in while talking "How long ago was that?"

Ruby innocently thought it over putting a finger to her chin "Uh, last week?"

Yang raised an eyebrow "Wow you two are pretty close then" In the back of her head, she pondered the many, _many_ , ways she could grievously harm Jaune with just the items in their dorm room.

Ruby shrugged it off "Well he hasn't asked it back, and this is a really comfy hoodie, I kinda like how it smells too."

Yang chuckled out "How it smells? Oh sis you have it bad for him don't you?"

Ruby stomped her foot "No I don't! He might be my best friend but your honestly reading to deep into things!"

Yang straightened up "Okay, but stealing a boy's hoodie is something a _girlfriend_ would do, you understand that right?"

Ruby's face turned almost as red as her scythe as she thought about it for a second. Yang kept going, have to much fun teasing her little sister at the moment "I mean, I don't blame you Ruby, he has some nice looking muscles. He's not hard on the eyes at all, and if you saw him without a shirt on? Hell I've seen Weiss staring, and that girl acts like she has an ice cube in her panties half the time"

Ruby's blush was threatening to overwhelm her, she took a deep breath and exhaled "W-Well he is cute, B-but I don't see him T-that way."

Yang smiled at her sister, Ruby was growing up fast and was clearly going to break someone's heart someday. That was unless she didn't have to break their knee's on her sister's behalf.

"Anyways, I had a reason for asking you about Jaune." Yang's expression became serious, Yang took a deep sigh "I'm honestly getting worried about him, something is up with him that he's not telling us about"

Yang noticed Ruby tense up a bit "I haven't really noticed Yang."

Yang caught on quickly, and that worried her, why was her own sister keeping quiet about Jaune as well? "Well, I can't get him to talk, hell I even tried flirting with him and giving him a shoulder rub to get him to talk and it didn't work"

Ruby shrugged not making eye contact "Maybe if it was something he wanted to talk about, he'd talk about it?"

Yang raised an eyebrow "But he talked to you about it?"

Ruby put both hands on the table and looked down at it "Don't do this Yang..."

Yang tilted her head "Do what?"

Ruby glanced back at yang with her eyes starting to tear up as if she was thinking of something painful "Make me break my promise..."

Yang's mind raced, what the fuck happened between the two of them? With the tone of a concerned older sister. "Did something bad happen between the two of you?"

Ruby shook it off and rubbed her eyes on the over-sized sleeve "No.. No nothing happened to me Yang..." Ruby looked back at the weapon parts on the the desk "Just, don't ask me to talk about it, it's not my place okay?"

Yang nodded and silently watched as her sister put the weapon back together.

* * *

That evening, Jaune was out working over some training drones, a habit that Yang noticed that he tended to do on an almost nightly basis these days, often for several hours at a time

No, that was a completely healthy thing for him to be doing, really.

Yang knew he wouldn't be back for a few hours though, so she called a team meeting of Blake, Weiss and herself to talk about the situation.

"Are we sure we shouldn't at least get Jaune in here and trying to convince him to talk to us about the problem?" Blake questioned to the room

"Yeah, I mean it's not like we haven't been trying for the last few weeks to get him to open up to us" Weiss fumed "At least he still calls you by your first names, I'm just _Schnee_ to him anymore"

Yang chimed in "Well my sister seems to know what's up, whatever is going on, either he opened up to her or she stumbled on it, but whatever it was had her upset about it as well."

"Maybe Jaune got her pregnant?" Weiss said with a shrug

"Weiss don't even joke like that, what the hell is wrong with you?" Yang shouted at Weiss

Blake thought about it "Well I mean she does act like his girlfriend, nothing against your sister, but she's shockingly easy to read."

Yang folded her arms "Nah, she's pretty sneaky, she _wants_ you to think you got a read on her, but it's not smart to underestimate her." Yang paused for a few moments "Besides she was blushing too hard at the idea of them dating for it to be true"

Blake and Weiss shrugged and nodded, Weiss spoke up "I mean this all started that morning when he woke up from that nightmare he had, do you guys thing that was it?"

Blake sat and folded her arms "Well I mean he is the last to bed and the first to rise, that has to be taking a toll on him." Blake rubbed her neck as if she was repressing herself "I mean, nightmares could explain that pretty easily right?"

Yang decided to file her own partner's reaction away for a rainy day as well. "Well what else happened that day?"

No one could really thing of anything.

Weiss finally broke the silence "Well I don't know, and we won't solve it this way, I say we all agree to keep and eye on him for now okay?"

Yang nodded, but she quietly figured the only way to get an answer now, is the direct route.

* * *

Yang had striped down into a tank top and short workout shorts when she went into the training hall looking for Jaune, it wasn't to hard to find him, he was loudly working out by beating the tar of a drone that was set to a rapier fighting style.

Her earlier words about Jaune not being hard on the eyes came back to bite her on the ass as she admired her team leader's shirtless sweaty body taking a defensive fighting stance with a high guard before the rapier wielding drone.

Her train of thought was broken as the drone committed to a forward thrust that Jaune caught by the wrist before lifting the drone up by it's wrist and neck and slammed into the ground with a noticeable thud. What surprised Yang was that the drone must of weighed close to three hundred pounds and he body-slammed it with ease..

"Damn tiger, slow down and let the Gazelle run a bit before you kill it" Yang called out with a whistle

Jaune turned on his heels quickly, for only a split second she saw a look of rage on his face that vanished once he was looking at her, it honestly sent a shiver up her spine to see it. "Yang, can I help you?"

Yang walked over to him and unconsciously put a hand on his shoulder "Well, to be honest, I was going to ask you that."

Yang could feel the tension in his muscles and shoulders as he stood there, Jaune spoke up pretty quickly "Are you trying to come on to me?"

Yang put her hands on her hips, she knew this was Jaune trying to trick her off target by flustering her "Why, do you think it would help if I was?"

Jaune got an unreadable look on his face as he reached for his towel "Honestly, Not really Yang sorry."

Yang got an offended look on her face, but let it pass. "Fair enough Vomit boy" She paused for a second "So anyways, I talked to my sister earlier, and the subject of you came up."

Jaune paused as he was wiping the sweat off his neck a second later he spoke up "Well if your wondering, no I'm not sleeping with her."

Yang huffed and lost patience "Jaune, be straight with me, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Jaune raised an eyebrow at her, Yang looked him straight in the eyes, and wasn't liking what she was seeing. Jaune replied "Your reading to much into things Yang, I appreciate your concern but their's nothing wrong with me okay?"

Jaune went back to toweling off when Yang spoke up, this time with a bit more bluntness in her voice "Then why was Ruby almost in tears when I asked her about it?"

Jaune froze in place, Yang could tell she hit a nerve with him "I think the get a jog in, then a shower, i'll see you later okay?"

Jaune walked out of the training room. Yang spotted Jaune's scroll on a nearby bench. Yang thoughts were conflicted about what she was pondering, with a sigh she picked up his scroll and started to head back to the dorm room.

* * *

 **Sorry just wanted to add a [Cliffhanger intensifies] to the end here.**


	16. Chapter 16: Adam

**Man it would be a real jerk move to end the last chapter on a cliffhanger than cut to another part of the world for a chapter wouldn't it? but here we are in another chapter following another character, considering Adam's role in the canon story, it's surprising I had not done this yet.**

 **As for bookkeeping, if your interested, the first chapter of my second fic titled "Tactical Aura Gear: RWBY" is up, and you can find the link on my profile, unlike dust eater I only plan on updating that story weekly so I don't take away from this one.**

 **As always, hope you enjoy this chapter and I'll see you in the next.**

* * *

 _This chapter takes place concurrently with the events of chapter 15_

Adam stood on the hill overlooking a dust processing facility, In a few moments he and a number of his best men were going to raid the facility, steal all the dust they could and burn the factory to the ground.

His old friend Julius arc stood by his side, no linger hiding his nature, the White Dust Eater stood ready to lead his men into what should be a massacre.

"So were in agreement then, we spare any Faunus workers that do not take arms against us, and slaughter the rest then?" Julius said to Adam

"Of course, what's the point of the white fang even lashing out like this, if we slaughter the very people we sought to liberate?"

Julius smirked as he loaded shotgun slug rounds into his weapon, a combination of tonfa and semi automatic shotgun "Naturally, as long as I got to indulge my rage on the rest of them."

Adam put a hand on his friends shoulder "Your daughters will be avenged once the SDC burns under our feet my friend."

Julius whistled out as several more dust eaters emerged from their hiding spots, Several white fang warriors also stepped forward with them.

Adam smiled "Well shall we begin?"

* * *

It was only a few minutes into the battle, Adam was enjoying the Sight before him. The Opposed people of Remnant were casting off their shackles and were slaughtering their oppressors. He watched as Julius Used his Ability to manipulate the air pressure in the area to create crushing walls of force smashing his opponents into the walls while gunning down Altiesian Knights with his shotgun.

Adam himself was enjoying the battle, he walked towards one of the Atlas drones and with perfect form, sliced it in half with an Iaijutsu strike, Drawing his sword, slicing the machine down, and then re-sheathing the blade, almost faster than anyone could perceive him doing so.

Adam shouted into his headset "Status update, do we have the dust?" he was pleased to hear from one of his lieutenants "Yes sir, we secured the dust caches, processed and unprocessed and were now just waiting for the bull head to return for pickup"

Although standing around and watching was not his normal style, he felt that their was little challenge to this battle, suspiciously so, he glanced over as Julius grabbed one of the Atlas security guards by the head, gut punched him with the tonfa, and then fired the shotgun into his sternum.

The results were messy, undignified, and yet, glorious at the same time. "Julius, save some for the rest of your men! Come over here!"

Julius shook the gore off his hand and walked over "What is is Adam?

Adam simply spoke "How does it feel old friend? To finally start to make the enemy of your people pay for the blood they spilled?"

Julius smiled "Unsatisfying, I wanted to strike at the heart of the SDC and tear out the heart of the Schnee family directly, but this will push back that craving for the moment I suppose."

Adam laughed as the battle played out around them "Do not worry old friend, you'll get your wish in time, just be careful you don't become a true monster in the process."

Julius nodded and stood at Adam's side watching the battle, it was then Adam got a communication from one of the perimeter guard teams.

"What is it?" Adam spoke into his headset.

"Sir, a huntsmen is attacking our flank, were can't stand up to the bastard we need to-" the voice cut off unexpectedly with a loud burst of static

Adam turned to Julius "Julius, take command here, I'll deal with the hunter." As Adam turned and walked away from the battle inside the facility.

* * *

The unnamed huntsmen had done a number on the men outside, As Adam approached the tall muscular man, he made a few observations, first was the massive heavy blade, it was easily as tall as Adam was and the hunter could wield it in one hand. the second was the clear strength of his foe, he'd make short work of the man if he could just get in close, but that seemed to be a big if at the moment.

The man regarded Adam with Contempt "Well if it isn't the alpha of this pack of feral animals!"

Adam gritted his teeth "And who might you be if you don't mind amusing me?"

The Larger hunter stabbed his sword into the ground and stretched his sword arm out "My name is Arden Winchester, and I'm going to be the one that puts you in the dirt where you belong."

Adam drew his blade with a smile "Well Arden Winchester, lets see how this plays out then?" Before rushing his foe to end the battle quickly.

What Adam didn't expect is the Man to snap his blade up and swing the massive blade like he was swinging a short sword. Adam was forced to throw his blade up and block the Hunters strike, which sent him stumbling back several feet and into a defensive stance.

The Hunter tried to capitalize on Adam's lack of balance and went in with a flurry of one handed strikes which Adam barely managed to evade or parry each time. It was only when Adam managed to step back, And began firing rounds at the huntsmen using his scabbard riffle did he manage to force his foe to break his assault.

Adam Sheathed his blade and had to rethink his approach, his foe had a reach advantage and could swing the massive blade as fast as he could his.

"Impressed are you? that's my semblance at play, it reduces the weight of any carried object I use to near zero, my Zweihander is light as a feather in my hands as a result, your puny ass likely couldn't even lift it if you tried." The Hunter bragged as he spoke.

Adam Smiled, he just had to be faster than then. "If your so great, than come and get me Hunter" Adam Taunted.

The Heavy armored Hunter obliged him, charging in with an incredible, but now predictable speed, Adam pointed the hilt at his opponent, pulled the trigger on his sheath and fired his blade off at his opponent, catching the handle of the blade, he performed a vertical Iaijitsu strike at his foe, and although the elder Winchester had managed to evade the strike by twisting his body, it still ruined his charge.

Adam smiled impressed as he fell into an almost duet like dual against the hunter, With a full Broken moon in the sky lighting up the scene, one could mistake the deadly dance for little more than a stage play, each side took turns trading and parrying each other strikes. Blade met with blade, Adam would slash or thrust only to be met with a block or a parry, the Hunter would take long arcing swings that Adam would maneuver around. Neither giving the other the advantage.

Adam however eventually started to wear down, His foe might not feel the weight of his blade, but Adam did, he decided on a gamble to end the duel in his favor, as he spun around a straight thrust from his foe, he pressed the barrel of his sheath/rifle against the back of the man's shoulder and fired. Adam smiled at the immediate effects of seeing the man drop his blade and a spray of blood fly from the exit wound.

"As I suspected, you were beginning to tire out hunter, your swings were becoming clumsy towards the end, and I was right in suspecting that your semblance was slowly draining your Aura from you" Adam spoke with respect to his defeated foe

"Ah Damn you Taurus..." The Elder Winchester replied in a rage "You dirty bastard, you knew you couldn't keep pace for much longer so you sought to disarm and cripple me with a cheap trick..."

"You are correct in this case, I don't see many Hunters push me as hard as you have, I'll offer you a chance to walk away if you want" Adam spoke.

"Is it just a game to you then, you beat me, you expect me to walk away, train, and then come back stronger?" Arden spoke back his voice filled with hate.

"If the idea pleases you, then sure, why not?" Adam chuckled out.

The Winchester man had a rebuttal for that, pointing his good arm at Adam, clicking something in his hand, causing it to fall open revealing a single shot canon "No it does not!" Arden fired the canon at Adam, Adam barely had the time to side step the scatter shot of buck shot but still suffered a wound in his side for it.

Adam responded with a low swing that severed both of the elder Winchester's legs, enraged he shouted out both in fury and pain "You speak of dirty tricks and then pull that kind of shit! Tell me, Hunter, do you have Children I can send your body too?"

As Arden continued to bleed out from the severed veins in his legs "I do, and don't worry, one day, they'll avenge me for sure..." Shortly after that, Arden's eyes closed, never to open.

Adam Screamed to the sky in pain and rage "Not if I find them first you bastard!"

As with a noticeable limp he started to walk back to the battle, he got a message on his headpiece "Adam, it's Julius, it's all done here, we acquired a few tons of dust, and were about to blow the site to hell and back"

Adam in raw fury shouted "Excellent, I'll watch from here, send me a bullhead pickup, I'm injured and I'm not in the mood to walk back!"

Nothing more needed to be said, from his vantage point, he watched the last of his bulllheads take off from the Processing plant as explosions started to tear through the structure, one bullhead turned to retrieve Adam.

* * *

On the bullhead on the way back, Adam reflected on the results of the operation, the raid would cost the SDC a couple million lien in lost property, And likely a few million more in lost Dust transactions easily.

But they lost 9 good Faunus solders, and almost unbearable loss to him. "Damn that Hunter..." He swore out loud

"It would have been worse if you didn't intervene" Julius said nearby "Victory is paid in lives Adam"

"We need more allies, we need to become strong enough that we won't lose so many of us in future battles" Adam mused his mouth hidden behind his steepling hands

Julius smiled to his friend "We will attract more allies with time, your white fang is growing, the Faunas we liberated here will tell our tale." Julius reached over and put a hand on Adam's shoulder "You will be seen as a hero my friend." Julius "That being said, it's time we reconsidered that Torchwick guys offer"

Adam smiled secretly, he didn't care much for Roman Torchwick, or the Cinder woman he answered to. but he knew Julius was right, they just needed to stay the course and take advantage of every opportunity given to them to succeeded.

"Then lets arrange a meeting shall we?" Adam answered.


	17. Chapter 17: Blake

**So it's been a few days since the last post, because honestly this chapter was a bit of a challenge to write, Honestly, Blake is a hard character (for me) to write for, so I had to kinda mentally get in her head, especially the Volume 1 version of her. I'll write more at the end of the chapter to kinda go into my thoughts about this chapter.**

Blake was never one for openness and being overly friendly, she taught herself to stay in the corners and to keep quiet, these were lessons she needed to learn especially at school as she deeply feared that if her secret White fang past ever came out, she would be at best expelled, or at worse sent to prison for her crimes with the Fang.

As she sat in a quiet corner of the Atrium reading a book however, she saw the other reason for need to maintain her secrets, as Cardin Winchester barged into the quiet Atrium in a rage. The first thing Cardin did was kicked over a Trashcan and shout out in anguish.

Something bad happened, Blake knew that much.

"Those bastards, those fucking Faunas bastards!" Cardin shouted out at no one in particular.

Blake's eyes shot wide in fear, Cardin was already a known racist, but if a Faunas somehow wronged him then...

She didn't get to finish the thought as she saw Velvet enter the Atrium as if she was looking for someone.

Blake immediately became worried for the bunny girl, as Blake herself had observed Winchester bullying her a few weeks back. Velvet when she saw Cardin stopped in her tracks for a few moments.

Cardin's rage had broken before the Trash can had and he slumped onto a nearby couch sobbing, it was then Velvet stepped over to him and pulled him into a hug, Blake was surprised to see her comforting her tormentor, she was just as surprised when she then kissed him.

She heard Cardin speak up, choking out the words between sobs "I-it's okay to hate him right, t-to hate the bastard that killed my d-dad right?"

Velvet lifted his face to look in his eyes. as Cardin continued to Ramble on "I-I'm trying to be better Velvet, I-I really am, I want to become better for us."

Velvet looked Cardin in the face cupping his head in her hands "Cardin, Do you hate him for because he's a Faunas, or for what he did to your dad."

Cardin sobbed out "I-I hate him because he killed my dad..."

Velvet then stroking his neck reassured him "Then it's okay to hate him, you can hate someone for what they did, just don't hate them for what they are."

Cardin held tightly onto Velvet, his head resting against her "O-Okay... I'm S-Sorry for everything you know..."

Blake was no longer reading and fully paying attention to what the pair was talking about, she considered walking over to them to talk, and maybe backup Velvet if she needed to. Velvet what silently rubbing the neck of the inconsolable boy in her arms.

"Velvet, when I woke up from my nap and found my Semblance had awoken, I knew something happened..." Cardin spoke "While some families have Semblances that are hereditary, with every member of the family having it." Cardin paused to fight back tears as Blake approached "With my family, our semblance is passed down on death... so when I woke up with it, I knew that meant my father had died..."

Blake finally joined the conversation "Cardin, what happened?"

Cardin's entire body shook as he struggled to speak... Velvet finally spoke on his behalf "Cardin's father was reported as being killed in battle a few hours ago against the White Fang"

Blake covered her mouth speaking through it "Cardin, I'm so sorry..."

Cardin could only nod out squeezing Velvet's hand. he finally spoke "I'm sorry I need to call home... I don't know if mom knows yet or not..." as he stood up and started to walk away.

Velvet watched Cardin take off looking upset as well for Cardin's sake, When she caught Blake staring replied with a simple "What?"

"You and Cardin? How did that happen?" Blake questioned Velvet

Velvet smiled sadly as she remembered "Well, While your team leader had detention for basically crippling him, Cardin ended up getting punished by Ozpin for his bigotry in a different way." Velvet sat down and gestured Blake to join her "Cardin... Well once you get past the shell, is actually a pretty nice guy."

Blake shook her head "I'm having a hard time picturing that Velvet."

Velvet leaned on her hand. "The thing is, Cardin was being racist towards Faunas because that's all he knew in life, he's from Atlas, and his father was a Huntsmen in the employee of the SDC for a few years. His mom i'm told isn't particularly racist herself, but she would never speak up against her husbands beliefs"

Blake nodded "So he never had a chance in other words?"

Velvet nodded in the affirmative "So Ozpin had to punish Cardin somehow, so he had me, the victim of his bullying stay in the room with him, and talk to him, make sure if he needed help with anything that someone would be there."

Blake narrowed her eyes "How is that a punishment for him? It sounds like Ozpin was punishing you to."

Velvet shrugged "Well that was because, his fate here was in my hands. Ozpin told me that, if after a week, I didn't feel like he learned anything, then that was it, he was gone from school." Velvet leaned on the table. "Ozpin put his life in my hands. Of course I didn't tell Cardin any of that though."

Blake scoffed "Can someone really change in a week?"

Velvet "Well, no, it takes a long time to change deeply held beliefs Blake, no one can change overnight. Cardin is trying, but it's a struggle for him." Velvet smiles "And honestly, the first couple days were hard, but by day three, Well, I started to casually talk to him about my family, and, he started to open up about his."

Blake Was now fully interested in the rest of the story and prodded her to keep going saying "And?"

"Well next thing we both knew, we had been sitting there, talking, just talking, for about 6 hours... I guess he didn't have anyone to talk to in recovery you know?" Velvet replied.

Blake got a slightly surprised look on her face "Wow, I can't imagine him talking to anyone for that long, let alone a Faunus."

Velvet laughed a bit "Like I said, he puts up a hard shell, but once your past it, he's really a nice guy."

Velvet smiled and blushed a bit "I guess by the end of the week, we were pretty much friends." Velvet looked up and stammered "Oh and h-he did apologize for the bullying, I want to make that clear!"

Blake laughed for the first time in a long time. "Well I'm sure he did if you do are together"

Velvet smiled and blushed a bit. "There is allot there to like once you dig deep enough, I'm helping him as much as I can, He's always apologizing to me when he slips up and uses a slur for example." Her face then scrunched up into a frown "I just hope that what happened to his father doesn't cause him to backslide you know? I mean, I guess if I had to admit it out loud, I love the real him. I just don't want him to feel like he has to hide who he is again from us."

Blake smiled "Stick to it, be there for him, I can tell you worked hard at getting him to see you as Velvet, and not as another Faunas"

Cardin walked back into the room, Velvet stood up and walked over to him cupping his cheek "Is everything okay?"

Cardin shook his head "The SDC told her a couple hours ago, Mom's having a rough time of it. Damn... She begged me to not do anything stupid like think I had to blame all Faunas for what happened, like my dad would have..."

Velvet frowned "What did you say to that?"

Cardin half smiled "I told her that'd be a bit hard considering my girlfriend is a Faunas"

Blake slipped out as the pair hugged, in a mutual and desperate need to comfort the other.

* * *

Blake returned to the dorm room, Weiss was pacing around the room in anger, Yang was sitting on the bed starring at a scroll in her hands.

"What's going on?" Blake asked Weiss

"The White fang attacked a Dust processing plant we own... I... I'm pretty pissed off right now, I don't care about the dust, be we lost allot of good workers. good people there tonight!" Weiss shouted out in frustration "The Damn White Fang even had the gall to bring in a pack of Feral fucking Dust Eaters into the fight as well!"

Blake wanted to explode on Weiss for speaking ill of her former friends, wanted to rip into her and point out that their treatment of Faunas in general created the _need_ for the White Fang in the first place.

But she didn't. She paused, she found herself thinking of Cardin Winchester, how he was raised in an environment with a racist Father, and a passive mother. Someone who's struggling with his own past, and his own family teachings because someone showed him a different way.

 _Racism is something you taught, your not born with it_ Blake thought. For the first time, she realized the common thread that she and Weiss had in common, they both were taught to hate, Blake hated the SDC, because she was taught to by Adam, and Weiss hates the White fang, because her family taught her.

Maybe it was time they showed each other another way.

Weiss was pretty shocked to say the least when Blake hugged her. "I'm sorry, did you know any one that was lost?"

Weiss unexpectedly hugged back "No... Not directly, but it hurts every time I hear about people working for my fathers company getting hurt.

Yang smiled at the pair of them, Yang noticed the ribbon being held in Blake's hand behind Weiss's back, and the cute little ears sticking out from the top of her head.

Blake still hugging Weiss asked "Why do you think they attacked? The White fang?"

Weiss shouted out "How should I know... the only thing they took before they leveled the place was the Dust and the workers!"

Blake calmly asked "What was special about the workers?"

Weiss tightened her grip "I don't know, they were just a bunch of Fa-" Weiss stopped herself and quietly said "They took the Faunas workers..." Weiss talked her self though still tightly hugging her teammate "They took the Faunas workers... The White Fang took back their own people who were working at the Processing plant..."

Blake knew that Weiss was not stupid, and that she wasn't really as racist as her father, but she was close minded at times, especially when it came to people speaking ill of her family's business. When Weiss pulled back to look at Blake her words died before they came out, it took her a few moments to process the fact that quiet, sweet little black had cat ears where her bow would normally be.

Blake saw Weiss go through a flurry of emotions settling on confused tear filled expression "Blake... Why were you hiding this from us?"

Blake took a second to answer, but when it finally came out it came out as a whimper "Because I was scared..."

Blake was pulled into a group hug as Yang and Weiss both gave her a hug, Mostly Yang hugging the sobbing pair. It took a few minutes before either Weiss or Blake could recompose themselves enough to talk, Yang spoke up asking "So... does that mean your not scared anymore?"

Blake shook her head "I-I'm still scared of people knowing I'm a Faunas... so I hope you don't mind if I hide outside of here... but.. I.." Blake struggled for a bit "Well dammit, people can change right? Maybe if I don't have to hide from my teammates, maybe someday I won't have to hide at all."

Yang smiled her approval "You never had to hide from us Blake, Even the ice queen wouldn't hate you for this right?"

Weiss smiled "I guess I am sorry for the awful crap I said about Faunas before though..."

Blake smiled through he tears "It's okay... if I learned anything today, it's that our fears, and our hatred. It was taught, and what we learn, can be forgotten right?"

Weiss Smiled "Yeah, Your right!"

* * *

When Jaune came back to the dorm later, Weiss and Yang were both sleeping. Blake was sitting up in bed, Jaune smirked when he saw Blake's ears and whispered to her "So, is that your big secret?"

Blake gestured at Jaune to go talk out in the hall. Once they were both outside she kept a close eye out to make sure no one could see them both.

Jaune softly said "Well? Your a Faunas, that was a secret?"

Blake shook her head "No that was only half of it... I'm still not ready to tell everyone the rest of it..."

Jaune looked down "Well, we had a deal, I'll tell you part of my secret okay? But... Don't tell anyone yet... Only Ruby knows this..."

Blake nodded "Okay, what's up?"

Jaune struggled as he leaned against the wall and wrapped his arms around himself... "I honestly have been trying to keep this wrapped up tight, to keep it to myself..." Blake saw tears streak down his face "Two of my sisters died a few weeks ago... when our village was attacked..."

Blake was hugging him in seconds "Oh god Jaune... I'm so sorry..."

Jaune hugged her tight "Ruby found out on accident, she was there when I found out..."

Blake looked up at him "What happened... Who attacked your village"

Jaune looked to the side evasively "That's... tied too close to the other half of my secret..."

Blake bit her lip, it would be easy to tell him now... she just had to spit out the words... she kicked herself for not being able to just say it, she looked at Jaune who seemed to be able to see the conflict in her, he spoke up and said "Would it help if I told you the rest? I mean... What the fuck is the worse that can happen... I end up dead?"

Blake was confused by the statement, why would anyone want him dead? But she can see the conflict in him, he put a crack in the dam, and he was struggling to plug it. She knew it would be better, maybe for both of them to let walls collapse, even if it's just for the two of them.

Whatever his secret was, could it be as severe as hers? Blake nodded and told him "Yeah, tell me the rest, and i'll do the same okay?"

Jaune paused gritted his teeth and looked at her softly saying it, as if the very words escaping his lips would damn him in the eyes of the brother gods.

"I'm a Dust Eater..." Jaune said softly

Blake leaned back, she was pretty surprised to hear him say it, it didn't seem possible that such a normal looking boy was one of the fierce-some beasts of legend.

"My sisters... they died when the SDC attacked our home after they bought the land out from under us... My dad probably is off fighting with the Fang right now..." Jaune aid quietly getting more nervous as he spoke.

Blake cupped his cheek and said "I won't tell a soul, I promise you..." She pulled her hand away and spoke up herself "I... Used to be part of the White Fang... One of their leaders, Adam, was the first man I ever fell in love with... I did some terrible shit Jaune..."

Blake felt his hand on her shoulder, Jaune smiled at her "Sounds like we both got some shit we need to work out."

Blake smiled back "Gods I can't believe how relived I am to have said that"

Jaune chuckled "Holy crap I know right?" he paused "If you need to talk to anyone about your past... well I'm pretty good at secrets"

Blake smiled "Same for you Jaune..." Blake rubbed her neck "Actually I figured something was different about you, you smell different..."

Jaune tilted his head at Blake. "Meaning?"

Blake softly laughed... "Don't worry about it, I don't mean that in a bad way, it's a nice smell"

As they both stepped back into the room Blake snickered "Oh your not going to believe who Cardin is dating now..."

 **Blake was in canon the person who needed the most prodding to grow as a character, but since Jaune kinda stole her canon character arc in a way, seeing as both characters has some serious skeleton's in their closet, I kinda needed a different path for her to learn to trust her team, or at least "come out" as it were. I figured that one way to inspire her to come out to her team would be to learn that, for starters, she didn't have anything to be afraid of, that their was nothing wrong with being Faunas in the first place. I may have kinda hammered down a bit to much on the "Racism bad" message here a bit hard as well, but I'm still kinda of a rookie when it comes to writing, so I hope this doesn't cheese anyone off to badly.**

 **Of course if you get Cheesed off because you somehow think "Racism is good" then go piss up a rope, but I doubt anyone reading Rwby FanFiction would think that way as that's a major theme of the series.**

 **Also who here figured that the first official pairing of the fiction would be Cardin and Velvet of all people, and not as a crack pairing, WTF?"**


	18. Chapter 18

**This chapter, not counting the bold text, is 6,385 words long, this is easily the longest single thing I have ever written in my life. But here we are with an Arc ending chapter, After this I can put the "Jaundice to Forever Fall" part to rest and move on to the next arc, maybe after a day or two to really lock there where I want to to go, since in this version Blake already came out as a faunas and know's she has her teams support.**

 **I'll be straight with everyone, it's been a blase to write so far, I even really enjoy reading people's comments on the story so far, I'm a little surprised no one called me out for making Cardin's dad a shameless rip off of Guts from Berserk, but it is what it is. Honestly the original plan for this was to basically be almost done with the second volume by chapter 30, but I'm not even close to finished with Volume 1, and i'm 18 chapters into this. Either way I'll have a few more thoughts at the end of the chapter, so i'll see you down there.**

* * *

Forever Fall... Jaune never knew the significance of the place. But few would blame him, he's the son of a Miner, his life was simple. So, Very, Simple...

Jaune stared at the scroll in his hands, Yang had told him she found it in the gym two nights ago after he went for his jog. Of course clearly in that short window, it was entirely possible that someone could accidentally fail to unlock it over two dozen times.

The galling thing, is that people wonder why he has trust issues, then again most people would question why he had opted to install several third party security applications on it in the first place for that very reason.

Jaune has sat on the other side of the bullhead from his team, and spent most of the flight to Forever fall staring at old photo's on his scroll, happier times, his eyes lingered every time he'd see a photo of him with his twin sister. A sister he'd never see again...

Because of the _Schnee's_...

Jaune glanced at the rest of his team, the three girls seemed to be carrying on happily, Jaune caught a glance from Blake, she was keeping an eye out for him, but the other two? Pretty much lost in whatever they were talking about, he honestly couldn't give half a damn.

Jaune thought of his mother, he called his uncle a couple nights back, she had yet to wake up. He honestly wondered if she was ever going to wake up, or if she was going to end up just another part of his life stolen from him by the SDC. He also thought of his father, out their fighting the SDC with the help of the White Fang.

His father was fighting, his uncle was taking care of the family, and Jaune was _Babysitting_ his partner who was entirely incompent in even the most basic aspects of Camping and traveling. It was then he noticed someone was talking to him.

"Earth to Jaune" Yang spoke to him sitting on the bench across to him.

"What's up Yang?" Jaune said in a flat tone.

"I know we all got entirely to used to you being quiet, but your input would help out at the moment about our sleeping arrangements?" Yang stated.

Right, for some ungodly reason the team sided with Weiss and opted to bring tents and sleeping bags with them, well except for him of course, but now he's likely going to end up hauling two people's loads when the _princess_ gets to tired to haul her pack now.

"What's there to say, we have two tents, that's enough for the three of you, and I'll do what I normally do when camping" Jaune spoke in response.

Weiss visually _ugh'd_ in indignation at Jaune's response "It won't do to have out team leader half dead from exhaustion the next morning because he shivered half to death in his sleep"

"I'm not you Schnee, I know how to keep warm when sleeping under the stars." Jaune stated flatly "Besides it's going to be-" Jaune paused for effect "It's going to be weird being in a tent alone with one of you."

"Why? Worried you won't be able to keep your hands to yourself?" Schnee retorted back at him

"More like I'm worried I'd have to file a harassment report to Ozpin when we get back" Jaune stated not singling out a single person in particular. This earned an amused eye-roll from Blake, an uncomfortable chuckle from Yang, and a look of disgust from Weiss.

"I wouldn't touch you like that, if someone told me it would cure cancer Arc." Schnee barked out

Jaune actually couldn't stop himself from chuckling at that, he had to admit, that was pretty good "In all seriousness though, we should really sleep in shifts since were using tents, I'll take first watch and you three can sort out the other watches"

The girls gave uncomfortable glances at each other, Blake understood the need to keep watch out in the woods, but Schnee needed it explained to her. "My dad taught my sister and I, to always keep a look out for danger, even if your just camping in the backyard, or less than a few dozen yards out of town, always be alert for danger."

Jaune wondered if Rose was keeping and eye out for danger the day she was murdered, he caught Blake's look of concern, and he wanted to reassure her that he was okay, but the loudspeaker chimed in alerting the team it was almost time to disembark.

* * *

Weiss didn't understand Jaune anymore, she didn't pretend to understand him in the first place, but while she only learned one teammate was a Faunus a couple nights back, she had a feeling that Jaune was keeping a far deeper secret than even that.

She didn't like how he spoke to her, it was never 'Weiss', or 'partner' anymore, it was always just _Schnee_...

Why did it always sound like a slur when he said it to her? She came to beacon to get away from her family name, and make something real for herself, something that she earned, and wasn't given. Why did she even give a damn if Jaune approved of her?

Like when he chastised her for suggesting they use tents and sleeping bags, other teams were bringing camping gear, what made team BWJY any different than them, because _he_ went camping a lot with his sister? Please...

They were only marching a few miles into the woods, five miles at the most to where they needed be for tomorrows exercise. How hard could that be?

* * *

Jaune was pretty pissed off at the moment, half way into the walk, not even a hard march, a walk and Schnee had tired herself out "Are you serious right now? I get we don't have the strictest timetable to get camp set up in, but I can't believe you wore yourself out already!"

Schnee had needed to sit down, as she rubbed out a cramp in her leg "Well excuse me, for being human Jaune!"

Jaune had refused to sit down and take a break himself "I get it, you think I'm being unreasonable here, that i'm just making us all suffer for extra credit or something, is that it?"

"I don't know what to think, because you never say anything! This is the most you've said to anyone not named Ruby Rose in weeks!" Schnee shouted back

"God dammit you don't get it do you! Any one of us can die in an instant, and I get the other teams went and brought tents, and sleeping backs, and fresh clothes, like this was a big damn party out here-" Jaune shouted

"Because it's suppose to be! Were not full huntsmen yet, I mean for pity's sake Jaune, were out here gathering _sap_! and your treating this like were marching into the heart of the Grimm-lands!" Yang spoke up.

Jaune couldn't find the word, Yang pressed this advantage he gave here "Jaune in the world happened to you to make you this way."

Jaune gritted his teeth at the question "What you couldn't find the answers on my scroll so your going to gang up on me?"

It was Weiss's turn to pressure Jaune "No one needs security like that on a scroll!"

Jaune barked at Schnee "Well clearly I do, since I can't trust my own damn team to not try to _spy on me!_ "Jaune met the gaze of his teammates "I don't have time for this, I'm going to go check the path up ahead and make sure we don't walk straight into a Beowolf nest"

As he was walking away, he could hear yang mutter "Man this would be the perfect team if not for it's _leader."_

* * *

It was later in the evening, the trio of girls sat around the fire chatting away, Jaune was making the rounds and was stretching out some stiffness in his shoulders. Blake was worried about Jaune, she had an insight into him that the others just couldn't understand. She would admit it wasn't exactly a picnic being living in the same room as Weiss, seeing as she grew up hating the company her family worked for. But Weiss didn't hold any particular bigotry towards Faunus that she could tell.

Weiss on the other hand refereed to the members of his people that helped the White fang as "Feral Dust Eaters" with the same tone of voice that one would refer to a rabid dog. Blake chalked that up to the fact that so little was known about Dust Eaters in general, and it seems most of it was wrong in someway, Jaune certainly didn't look like a lizard, and she didn't see him greedily scarfing town all the dust he could see.

Blake watched Jaune as he leaned against a nearby tree looking out into the woods, He said his sister and him went camping allot like this. She could only imagine the pain he was in, the memories that invaded his mind like a ghost latching onto his soul and refusing to let go of him.

Unable to even grieve for her, because he didn't want the others to know the truth about him. Blake understood that kind of hurt.

So while the Yang and Weiss were casually debating who would win in a fight between Professor Port and a 4 armed Ursa Major. She slipped over to Jaune to talk.

"So, have you ever had a close call while camping like you were talking about earlier?" Blake asked kicking herself for a lousy conversation starter.

"Yeah... When I was ten Rose and I were out camping, and almost got taken down by a half starved Beowolf that was kicked from it's pack" Jaune said mater of factually.

Blake went wide eyed "Well, I guess that explains why your paranoid about camping..."

Jaune shook his head "Nah, that's not really it to be honest, we were only about a hundred yards from the homestead, dad would have been out there ripping it's head off in a second if we screamed."

Jaune hesitated for a few moments. "Honestly we didn't even need his help, Rose damn near cleaved it in half before I was fully awake..." Jaune shook his head "She said it was leaning right over me when she killed it... as if it was going to take me out first." Jaune rubbed his neck a bit. "I guess I'm alive because of her, and she's dead..."

Blake pulled Jaune into a hug against the tree "Say the word, and we'll slip a couple hundred yards out so you can let it out."

She could feel Jaune's body shake in her arms before going still "No... Hell I bet Yang and Weiss are probably wondering why your hugging me as it stands, I mean what with Cardin and Ve-"

Blake looked up and chastised Jaune"I frankly don't give a damn what they think, this is about you bottling up your emotions, believe me when I say it doesn't end well Jaune."

"Frankly my emotions would be better off dead Blake" Jaune stated much to Blake's disappointment

"Jaune, I've seen too many people try that, and they just ended up as the same kind of monsters were out here learning to battle against." Blake said bitterly, not using the name on the tip of her tongue.

"Did he love you?" Jaune asked Blake quietly. Blake knew that she he was referring to Adam.

"I think he used to, until he forgot how to love anything." Blake said not doing a great job of hiding her own sadness.

Jaune just hugged her. at least until Yang's catcalls snapped them both out of the not unpleasant moment they were sharing. Blake would admit to herself quietly that the boy did smell nice at least.

Jaune sighed out a "I told you so" before letting go of her and stepping back

Blake blushed a bit "Well yang needs to stop borrowing my romance novels, it's clearly make here more perverse."

Jaune chuckled "Well she is a teenager Blake, do you really think her mind doesn't live in the gutter?"

Blake half-smiled at him folding her arms across her chest "Were teenagers too Jaune, or did you forget that?"

Jaune didn't smile when he spoke "Unlike her though, we both had to grow up before we were ready, hell even Schnee looks like she didn't get much of a childhood."

Blake chided Jaunt "About that, she has a first name you know."

Jaune shook his head "I can't look at her without seeing what she represents... the family that murdered a good chunk of my people..."

Blake started to walk back to the camp "I honestly do hope you figure out a way to see past her family, and see the girl behind the name some day soon."

* * *

Jaune yawned as he walked to the clearing where the other teams met up, after the argument yesterday he had doubts he'd be able to get the others to actually wake up to keep watch at all, only Blake helped when she woke up early and told him to go to bed for a couple hours. Yang and Weiss chatted casually, apparently picking up last nights debate where they left off, while he and Blake was up front scouting, and he kept an eye out for Grimm.

"You awake over there Vomit Boy?" He heard Yang say directly at him.

Jaune grunted out an affirmative "Yeah I just wish I had thought to grab coffee for this outing..."

He caught Schnee staring at him out of the corner of eye with an expression he couldn't quite place.

Blake came back in a hurry "Hey were at the clearing, lets link up with the other teams!"

Jaune followed as Blake led the team to where the rest of the students on this trip were headed, he noted Ruby's and Cardin's teams were present, he smiled a bit seeing Velvet leaning against Cardin. When Cardin looked over at Jaune, Jaune gave him a thumbs up. Cardin shot one right back at Jaune after putting a hand on Velvet's shoulder.

Jaune listened in as Glynda (who he was sure rode a Bullhead directly to the clearing, as it looked like you could land an Altisian battleship here) explained the goals for the field assignment, all students would pair off with their partners, or another teams partners if they chose to, and gather sap. Jaune glanced at Schnee as she was rubbing on insect repellent.

At least she got that right, hopefully the scent doesn't attract something else however...

Schnee walked over to Jaune "Well lets go get this over with okay?" Jaune couldn't help but notice something off at how she was looking at him.

"Right, sooner the better" Jaune replied and took her bag and started walking in the woods letter her follow him, what he didn't see was her smile as Velvet and Cardin went their own direction holding hands.

* * *

Weiss was looking at the strange contraption in her hands in confusion, this was supposed to help them get sap out of the tree?

"Jaune?" She asked glancing at him noticing him walking up to her with a good sized hammer in his hands, she paused for a second unsure about the look on his face before she shook it off. "Hey what do we do with this thing?"

Jaune looked at her with a look of confusion "You never seen a tap before?"

"No I clearly have not, not all of us live like a younger professor port" Weiss said defensively.

She watched Jaune's gloved hands take it from her, press a pointed end against a tree and smack it several times with the hammer until it was firmly in the tree, she could see the satisfaction in his face when sap started to slowly drip from it. "Nice, got it on the first try, Hey hand me a Jar!"

Weiss handed Jaune the Jar with a look of fascination on her face as he then looped string around the jar and the tap and tied it off so the jar was hanging off the tap "Lets give it about 15 minutes then we'll swap the jars out if it looks like we can milk a bit more from this vein"

Weiss felt a chuckle force itself out of her as Jaune sat down with his back to the same tree "Jaune you have to be the laziest huntsmen I have ever met"

Jaune smirked "Work smarter, not harder."

Weiss Sat down next to her partner "Why do I get the feeling you all but lived in the woods growing up?"

Jaune "Well no one in our village was the indoor living type..." He shrugged "Besides, you have to admit, when were not up to our necks in Grimm, it can be pretty peaceful out here."

Weiss thought for a second "You don't really talk about home much anymore do you?"

Weiss felt the mood change with a 'thunk' as Jaune went silent for a few moments "Well I guess I don't have allot to say about home anymore."

Weiss leaned over on Jaune's shoulder and closed her eyes, she felt Jaune slightly stiffen when she did so. "Your tensing up Jaune, relax"

"Sorry, i'm not doing it on purpose" Jaune quietly said, but didn't relax either.

"I know i'm not your cute little cat girl, but your shoulder is more comfortable than the tree" Weiss said with a slight bit of sarcasm in her voice that she very much intended to be there.

"Gods help me not you too..." Jaune sighed out "Why does it feel like half the school is taking a deep personal interest in my love life?"

Weiss softly chuckled to herself as Jaune kept talking "First people thought Ruby and I were dating, then last night Yang was shouting out because Blake gave me a _hug._ "

Weiss spoke out "Oh that was not just a _hug_ that was a straight up _cuddle_."

"See that's what i'm talking about, Yang practically drilled my head into the floor because Ruby and I went out into town, and now you and Yang are practically naming Blake and I's future kids." Jaune said with an exasperated tone.

Weiss narrowed her eyes playfully "Did Ruby ever give you back that hoodie you loaned her?"

Jaune scratched his chin "I don't believe she has yet to be honest. I didn't need it back right away"

Weiss started to laugh out loud wrapping an arm around Jaune's for stability "Okay are you seriously not seeing why that doesn't look like the two of you are dating." Weiss looked at Jaune's confused face and started laughing harder "Oh my gods you are so inept with girls it's not even funny!"

Jaune shook his head "Seriously? I mean yang is just trying to pair up half the class, hell what would you say if yang started to tease you about being my boyfriend?"

Weiss's mind went blank for a second as a mental image of his strong arms wrapped around her pressing her against a bare chest, after she snapped out of it with a blush "Well, I guess that depends on a couple things?"

"Like?" Jaune asked her.

Weiss broke eye contact "I mean, and I get it, it's a long shot, we were dating, then I obviously wouldn't mind it, but if we were not dating then maybe it'd take issue with it."

* * *

Jaune looked like he was about to say something when their attentions were drawn to a growing off in the distance.

Jaune pulled himself and Weiss to their feet facing the direction of the growing without breaking his gaze into the woods he barked out a quick "Schnee get your weapon!" and deployed his own wrist blades.

Weiss backed over to where her blade was resting against a tree as an Ursa stomped out of the woods, Jaune could immodestly tell something was off about this particular Ursa, the bone ridges on it's back with thicker, practically into spikes, and strange patches of silvery fur were on it's arms and shoulders.

As Weiss ran to get back to Jaune, he saw the Fur glow on the Grimm's body a bright orange as it looked at Weiss, as a glow formed in it's open mouth, Jaune was charging at Scene. "Weiss look out!"

When the Ursa expelled a massive ball of flame at Weiss, Jaune tackled Weiss behind a tree narrowly avoiding more than a light singing of his coat.

"What the hell! Since when can Ursa's breath fire!" Weiss shouted.

Jaune then heard the sounds of shouting and gun fire from multiple directions. it seemed the whole class was under siege. "looks like were on our own, we take the son of a bitch down, then we go link up back in the clearing with anyone else we can find okay?"

Weiss nodded as she charged out before Jaune could let her in on the plan, the massive Ursa's claws on it's arm extended as it swung down at Weiss as she stopped the attack dead in it's tracks with a glyph as Jaune ran past her and started to throw a series of rapid strikes at the now exposed side of the Ursa.

Then he caught the scent, fire dust, and it was building up around them.

"Weiss Pull back it's about to use it's fire attack again" As he grabbed her by the arm and threw themselves back assisted by a speed glyph from Weiss.

Then the Ursa seemed to have exploded a wave of fire out in all directions, the force of the blast sending Jaune and Weiss flying in different directions.

Jaune heard over the fire Weiss shout out "We need a plan!" he glance over to the tree she was using as cover, she was about 20 feet from him.

Jaune shouted back "Keep your head down, I'll bait it to use it's fire attack on me and you rush in and skewer the thing in the throat!"

Weiss shook her head "Your not going to be bait against that thing!"

"This is not open for debate!" Jaune stated as he was getting ready to charge the beast, he didn't expect Weiss to beat him to the punch

Jaune charged out after Weiss, but she was using a glyph to make herself more than capable of out running Jaune, he could only watch in horror as she went in for a low thrust, only for in to slash at her with it's claws.

The Ursa won the encounter and Weiss crumpled to the ground holding her side as blood briefly spurted out and stopped. And her Rapier ended up firmly impaled on a tree, Jaune could only grab her and carry her deeper into the woods with the Mutant Ursa's fire licking at his heels.

"Weiss speak to me, your not allow to die out here!" Jaune spoke in a panic as he cradled Weiss against him. it was now of all times did he notice just how frail and small she felt in his arms.

"Gah, crap this hurts!" Weiss shouted out.

"Damnit, why didn't you listen to me! I could have taken the hit!" Jaune shouted at Weiss

Trembling and in agony she looked up at Jaune "B-Because... I-I don't want anyone to die for me..."

Jaune lost his words, did she really think that's what he was attempting, she was the last person he'd get himself killed for!

"Run..." Weiss's voice broke through the noise in his head.

"W-What?" Jaune stuttered out

"Y-You can't beat it alone..." Weiss whimpered out "R-Run and get help, I'll buy you time..."

A look of shock was slapped on Jaune's face He cradled her tighter when he heard the road of the mutated Ursa howl at their direction.

"No, I won't leave you here!" Jaune shouted at her

Weiss's eyes teared up as she shouted to him "Please.. Don't die here for me..." Weiss cupped his face "Run, please..." As she passed out finally from the pain.

Jaune's anger boiled, who the hell did she think she was, telling him to run and leave her to die! the conflict burned in his head, this would be the best chance to avenge his sisters, all he had to do was walk away...

"No..." Jaune spoke up propping her against the tree as rage begin to build up. "An Arc, doesn't run away." Jaune stood up clenching his fists "An Arc does not abandon those who need help." he turned to face the Approaching Ursa...

"An Arc, sure as hell doesn't leave injured girls to be eaten by Grimm" Jaune said walking towards the beast.

"Yeah, You got a fancy trick up your sleeve don't you" He said to the Ursa. "But Dust is said to have come from the Brother gods themselves" Jaune's hands started to crackle as he popped his gauntlets off "And I have dust coursing through my body."

Feeling the surge of power in his body as he reshaped himself into his true form, feeling the strength flow into his arms and legs, his senses enhanced. "You can breathe fire, I have the power of the Gods themselves in me, what hope do you have?!"

Jaune took an almost feral stance, his whole body cracking with thunder as a fully fueled and empower Dust Eater got ready for battle.

The Ursa responded with a roar that striped the bark from nearby trees as it rushed Jaune with a lumbering charge. Jaune braced and leaned into the charge stopping the charge in it's tracks and caused his feet to dig groves into the dirt he was standing on.

"My turn!" As Jaune clocked the grim in the chin with a palm strike and kicked the beast in the guts sending his tumbling back, Jaune tried to capitalize on the with diving stomp only for the Ursa to grab Jaune by the leg and slam him through a tree that they were near.

Jaune landed in a heap as his rolled to the side to avoid a gout of flame the Grim spewed out at him. Back on his feet, he balled his hands up into fists as the Ursa roared, feeding electric dust energy into his hands he rushed in and started to unleash a massive combo of electrically charged strikes against the Ursa. Each strike drove the Beast further back into the woods and away from where Weiss was laid out.

Jaune was forced to back off soon after, narrowly avoiding a claw to the face as the Ursa started to counter flail at him.

"Your dead, your heart should have stopped from all the electricity I shot through you., hurry up and notice that your dead!" Jaune shouted

The Ursa charged as it's claws began to glow and it's hot breath ignited the air with cinders as it roared at him, it charged Jaune forcing Jaune to evade it's wild and uncontrolled swings . Jaune knew at that moment that blocking it's strikes wouldn't end well, the air around the Ursa stung at his skin as he defending himself from the beast.

But that didn't mean Jaune's arsenal had ran dry, he gathered electric dust energy into his hand through the fur on his forearm and shot a bolt of electricity at the Grimm, stunning it for a moment. Jaune got behind the beast, got a sturdy grip on it, and grunting as he lifted the massive beast up slammed the grim over his head in a German Suplex.

Jaune quickly rolled back getting distance as the Ursa some-watt unbalanced clawed back to it's feet. Jaune taunted the created "Oh you didn't care for that eh?"

The Ursa didn't respond to him, instead glance over where Weiss was propped against the tree, Jaune swore as he saw the beast inhale in readying itself to launch a fireball at the unconscious girl.

"NO!" Jaune screamed as the fireball was loosed at Weiss, Jaune quickly forming a shield around his body hurled into the path of the fireball as it exploded around him.

* * *

Elsewhere in the woods, other students were fighting their own battles, Ruby and Pyrrha were fighting against a pack of Beowolfs that had somehow mutated a form of super-speed that Ruby was barely keeping pace with, as Pyrrha used her semblance to redirect her partner's course for optimal kill strikes against the Grimm.

* * *

In another area, Ren was a flurry of death as he carved up a flight of small nevermores while Nora was smashing down the large Tree like grim they were using like a nest with her hammer.

* * *

Blake and Yang were paired off against a Massive ape like Grimm that was hurling Ice spikes at the dual, Blake was wrapping Gambol Shroudaround it's legs as Yang was trying her best to cave it's skull in with her fists.

* * *

Velvet and Cardin were both bashing down a pair of Ursa's that had been granted an unnatural resilience to their strikes, velvet was using a light formed copy of her boyfriends mace as they moved almost as if they were a mirror reflection of each other.

* * *

As the smoke cleared, it was apparent that Jaune was still standing, but his left arm was badly burned and hanging limply to his side, and one of his eyes refused to cooperate. The Ursa shouted out as if in premature victory at the Dust Eater.

Jaune let out a yelp of pain as he stood up. He knew he wasn't in much shape to keep fighting the beast, but as he looks over at it, he saw the damage that was done to it. "So you were just evening the playing field then..."

The Ursa started to build up fire in front of it's mouth as it prepared a final shot to incinerate the Young Dust eater and his partner where they stood. Jaune painfully smirked "Damn your really going all out on this huh?" With his good arm, he started to build up as much dust energy into the limb that he could, he knew everything was going to bank on this final clash.

"So be it!" Jaune shouted as he struggled to collect every scrap of dust energy into his good arm. The Ursa built up a massive ball of fire around it's mouth.

The seconds ticked town to zero, and the Ursa unleashed hell itself in Jaune's direction. But Jaune was ready, he point his good arm at the Ursa, dug in his feet, and let out a light brighter than the sun at the Ursa, the titanic dust fueled forces clashed in the middle as the controlled dust attacks struggled and pushed against each other.

Jaune couldn't even see the Ursa, but he knew it was there. Just as he knew his friends and teammate where all fighting battles out in the woods. "You really think your going to out pace me here, you might be able to ape a Dust Eaters power, but you'll never be on the same level as one!"

Jaune started to lean into his attack as stray lightning bolts cracked and struck tree branches causing them to burst off, and as the very world itself felt like it was catching on fire.

But Jaune felt his badly damaged body start to fail him. "No dammit all, NO!" He shouted at himself. "I will not let them down!"

He felt the Ursa's attack grow hotter as his lightning was threatening to short out. He started to slide back.

* * *

Elsewhere Ruby looked into the forest in the direction of where the clash of dust power was taking place. A look of worry was etched on her face as she could see the faint glow through the tree's.

* * *

Blake and Yang stood triumphant over their foe, but he elation of victory was short lived, as they both stared out in the direction that the world seemed to be destroying itself in. Blake mouth "Oh gods... Weiss and Jaune are that way!"

Yang shot a serious look to her teammate "Lets go, they might need us!"

* * *

Jaune droped to one knee as the heat from he Ursa's attack threaten to overwhelm him, his rage was slowly breaking down to despair as held desperately on to his attack. "Dammit, I guess I earned this didn't I, I've been so damn lousy at leading my team I couldn't even keep my partner from rushing off and getting hurt..."

Jaune closed his eyes as flashes of his sisters filled his thoughts...

"No... I'm not dying here!" As Jaune forced himself to his feet, feeding off the rage of his lost sisters. "I'm not dying to you! I still have haven't avenged them, my sisters."

Pushing the last reserves of his Dust into him, he glanced off at Weiss's sword stuck in a nearby tree behind the Ursa... A quick idea flashed into his head "Well, I guess you fucked up didn't you!"

Holding the line, he forced his injured arm up, and channeled a bit of his remaining dust into the limb firing off a mostly wild shot at the sword and hoped that Weiss had loaded it up with dust before they went.

His gamble was rewarded as the dust canisters in the sword burst and exploded causing the Ursa's to get peppered with various colors of dust. the damage itself was light, but it distracted the Ursa from it's unending onslaught for just long enough for Jaune to exploit it.

Pushing into his own attack, the Grimm's fire started to part ways as Jaune started to walk walk at the Grimm, his walk then became a sprint as he pushed his own faltering attack into the Grim itself as the grim's own fire's had finally gone out.

The pair of combatants screamed, Jaune in rage, and the Ursa in Agony as the lightning Jaune was shooting started to strip the creature's body apart before Jaune's very eyes.

"Fry you bastard!" Jaune shouted as the last of his dust lightning scorched the already dying Grimm further. Completely spent, he dropped to his knees and quickly fell out of his true form back into his human form.

Jaune's body screamed at him for pushing it as hard as he did, his left arm was burnt badly, his other arm was completely numb from being repeatedly zapped by his own electricity. He dragged himself over pulling what was left of Weiss's blade out of the tree over to her. his body covered in small bruises and light burn marks

He wasn't exactly out of the burning woods yet, as he leaned over to his unconscious but thankfully still alive partner he struggled to lift her up. "God dammit, you barely weigh a hundred pounds, this shouldn't be this damn hard Weiss!"

He heard a shout out in the woods calling his name, he shouted back "Over here! Call a bullhead Weiss is hurt!" He saw Blake run to them with a look of concern, before Yang appeared running up behind Blake.

Blake helped Jaune walk out, Yang carried Weiss on her back, but they lived another day.

If only Jaune could feel good about this...

* * *

Weiss's eyes cracked open, she heard the faint sounds of the bullheads engines, she glanced over at Blake and Yang sleeping nearby, she glanced over at Jaune who was staring at his phone, one arm in a sling and bandaged up, as was half his face.

"Jaune? Where?" Weiss said weakly

Jaune's head poked up as he looked at her "Weiss! Your awake!" Jaune stood up setting his phone down and move to kneel on the ground next to her "Are you in any pain? can you still move your feet?"

Weiss shook her head "I'm fine, it's not bad really..." Weiss struggled to sit up "You look like hell Jaune."

"I feel like hell Weiss." Jaune said helping her sit up. Weiss gently pulled Jaune to sit down next to her.

Weiss rested her head on his uninjured arm "What happened after I passed out, you managed to get us help right?"

Jaune chuckled resting as he rested his scroll on his lap, with a picture of him and a cute looking red head taking a selfie on the screen. Jaune yawned out a reply "You didn't miss much, except for a good chunk of the forest ending up on fire."

Weiss looked the scroll "Who's the cute girl?"

Jaune scoffed "That's just a picture of me and my sister"

Weiss smiled "Well she is cute"

Jaune leaned his head back and started at the ceiling "I suppose she was, yeah."

Jaune's use of 'was' didn't escape her "Jaune?"

"She's dead" Jaune said sorrowfully.

Weiss wrapped her arms around her partners arm and rested her head on his should "I'm sorry..."

She felt Jaune relax slightly as he spoke up "It's not your fault..."

* * *

 **Okay so at this point you probably figured that I'm going to be at some point incorporating the events of Grim Eclipse into the fiction, I mean sure it all but lacks a coherent story, and the game itself is not that great. but I think I could incorporate some of the lore from it into an arc by itself. so I look forward to that.**

 **Also I hope I gave you shippers reading this more than enough fuel for the chapter. the Next arc is going to deal with an expanded out version of the last two episodes of volume 1 "The Stray, and Black and white" as we push ever onward towards the end of season 1. I have a might fine twist planed for this one, and honestly, I'm a bit hesitant to pull the trigger on it, but we'll see where it goes.**


	19. Chapter 19

**So Since I wrote Blake coming out as a Faunas as part of the story a couple chapters back, I needed to think of a new way to get the group involved in seeking out the White fang, this chapter kinda kicks that ball a bit and now I'm going to see if that leads to where I needed it to be. Also lets not forget I promised a bit of a twist on the tale during this story line. Either way, See you all next chapter.**

* * *

Julius Arc walked alone through the warehouse his group had taken to call home for the last several weeks with his White fang allies, a creeping doubt was worming through the back of his head.

His wife was still in a coma, it is unlikely she will ever wake up. In the end, she will have died to avenge their daughters. Julius had to decide to keep leading his crusade, now almost two dozen Dust Eaters strong, or to go be with his wife's brother who was watching his surviving children.

Ultimately, he would find himself thinking often of the saying ' _When you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves'._

He stormed into the main office where his so called partner in crime were waiting for him. "I trust you have a reason for calling me to a meeting Roman?" Julius asked with the faintest hint of agitation.

Roman leaned forward in his seat chomping on a cigar "Oh I did, and your just going to love this. We got word of another Atlas shipment that's being transported through Vale via train that needs your particular set of skills."

Julius hated the man, he hated his games, he hated the fact that he was in it for the money, and not the cause.

He hated that he an Adam needed him, and his mysterious benefactor. "And just what in the hell is so important that you dragged us away from a raid that Adam and I planed for the better part of three days?" Julius spat out at Torchwick.

"Dust of course, but more importantly, weapons." Roman said kicking his feet onto the desk. "Both are important resources right now."

Julius was disbelieving "Why in the name of the brother gods would Atlas ship weapons through Vale?"

Roman shrugged. "I honestly have no idea, not sure I care for that mater, but for whatever _sinister_ purpose they could need weapons for? I'm sure you can think of... lets see, about 350 reasons Atlas might be shipping enough firepower to sink an island into the sea?"

Julius Growled "Retaliation..."|

Roman got up and started pacing the room "Ah Retaliation, One side kills a dozen people, the other side burns a village of hundreds to the ground, so the first side torches a city, the the cycle continues unending. It's a story literally older than time if the fairy tale of the brothers is true."

Roman stood behind Julius rubbing his shoulders "Hell, I'd even bet if there was only two people left alive in all of Remnant, and there was a pile of rocks on the ground, one would eventually kill the other for having a bigger rock."

Julius clinched his hands into tight fists "Then all we need to do is take the weapons from them, they would be better served in our, more deserving hands in any rate."

Roman smirked "I couldn't agree more Julius."

As Julius left the meeting, a thought crossed through his head. _'I've already had to dig two graves, it's high time they started digging their own."_

* * *

Beacon sometimes could be a difficult place to sleep at night, considering his species originally came into being in the coldest land the world, Jaune sometimes felt the need to take off a layer of clothes to sleep comfortably. Tonight had been one of those nights.. and thus he laid shirtless in his bed.

The last few weeks had been quiet, and Jaune was thankful for the routine, he didn't even feel that uncomfortable with the fact that Yang would forget that she didn't wear pants to bed the night from time to time, and that Jaune was very much a teenager. I mean sure he felt attraction to girls, but he didn't feel the same kind of attraction towards most normal girls as he did for other Dust Eaters.

Wait, did he just think 'Normal', as if to imply he wasn't? When did he stop seeing himself as normal?

He didn't get to finish that thought as he felt his blankets shift and a weight crawl into bed with him, his eyes cracked open to the sight of silver hair in his vision, he knew exactly what this meant.

"Another nightmare?" Jaune whispered feeling Weiss's back pressing into him

"Yeah..." She softly whispered back.

Jaune knew that his partner had been suffering from nightmares since Forever Fall, it's not like he didn't still regularly fight sleeping himself because he still woke up from his own nightmares more often than not.

"Honestly this is the second time this week you ended up in my bed, you keep this up and people are going to talk." Jaune whispered.

Weiss whispered "You mean Yang will talk?"

"Same thing, half the school is still pretty convinced I dumped Ruby for Blake as it stands" Jaune softly grumbled.

"Just... shut up Arc" Weiss said.

Jaune listened to the clock on the wall tick out the long seconds in the silent room, waiting for the telltale signs that Weiss was finally falling asleep, the way her breathing slips into a deeper more even pace, the way her body relaxes into him like she was sleeping next to a large teddy bear. A more self aware Jaune would have been deeply concerned with how familiar he was getting to his partners sleeping habits.

It wasn't happening tonight... Jaune whispered in the darkness "You want to talk about it?"

He felt Weiss's back tense against him when he spoke She whispered "I'm just scared is all... I can't even get near a fireplace or an oven anymore, it just reminds me of the woods." She paused for a moment "I just don't know how to move past it, I was ready to die in those woods, I was ready to throw all my hopes, my dreams, my future... I was ready to throw it out the window and accept that I was going to be..." Jaune reached out and put a hand on her shoulder and rubbed it gently.

"Your alive Weiss, no mater what happened in the woods, your survived it, I know it won't be easy to move past it, but with help, or even just with time you will" Jaune whispered.

Jaune felt her roll onto her back, it was moments like this he couldn't see well in the dark unless he enhanced his own senses. The last thing he needed was to see Weiss laying in his bed in that thin nightgown of hers. "Jaune..." Weiss whispered "Your going to help me right? I mean I know your helping me with Grimm studies, and with our outdoor activities already... you don't mind helping me with this right? You can teach me how to no be scared all the damn time?"

Jaune frowned at the darkness "I don't know how not to be scared of things Weiss, I only know how to ignore it."

Weiss softly whimpered out as she rolled again this time facing him and burying her head into his chest. "Then help me ignore it tonight Jaune."

"Well I'm sure I have a few stories from home I can pull out of my ass if you think it'll help" Jaune whispered.

Weiss's body convulsed a bit against him as she softly chuckled "Gods Jaune, I'm laying in your bed in nothing but a thin nightgown and your way of distracting me is to offer to tell me a childhood story..."

"Weiss if you honestly thought for a second I was the type of guy to take advantage of my upset, sleep deprived partner like that, you would cuddling up to Blake right now." Jaune paused and chuckled "Besides she's a cat Faunas, we probably woke her up talking, I don't think she would want to hear us making out at-" Jaune glances at his alarm clock "3:17 am..."

The room went silent again, Jaune started to drift back off as the only sounds in the room was the wall clock ticking away.

"I'm sure if you did Yang would have crushed your manhood into powder in any rate" Weiss whispered

Jaune softly chuckled at that "Or she would be dragging you down to the nurse's office every time you sneezed for the next month after that"

Weiss snickered softly "Oh you would so be expelled too if we did that." Weiss poked his chest "But you'd have a some serious bragging rights back home right?"

Jaune let out a halfhearted "Heh" at that.

"Well lets not find out either way right?" Jaune whispered

The room went silent again... Jaune tried to go to sleep, actually feeling pretty tired now, which was proving to be amazingly difficult when he he can feel all five foot 3 inches of Weiss pressed against him for comfort, just as he was about to fall asleep Weiss spoke up again saying tiredly "You know you do smell pretty good though"

Jaune heard Blake mutter off on her side of the room "Weiss, we all know he smells good, by this point he likely knows it too, either go make out in our closet and get it over with or kindly go the hell to sleep." Jaune swore he might have heard a slight giggle from Yang's bunk as well.

Jaune imagined Weiss blushing out of embarrassment, it put a smile on his face. he counted the seconds as silence filled the room, quietly thinking of a way to repay Blake for coming to his rescue there. As he laid there, trying to think of Moonball or a Nevermore dancing the Can-Can, or really anything but the warm body pressed against him did he notice her breathing calm, and her body relax into him.

He didn't last much longer himself.

* * *

The next morning Jaune woke up alone, not unsurprising as Weiss tried to kill rumors of any thing improper happening between Jaune and her by waking up first. As he got out of the shower, he saw her ranting about something with Blake and Yang. Strangely enough Blake looked like her nerves were being frayed some-watt.

The reason became quickly apparent as he listened to Weiss talk "Those murderously barbaric _animals!_ " Weiss barked out fighting back tears "They attacked a company train, killed half of the people on board, and your actually defending them Blake?!"

Jaune winced at the unintentional slur on Weiss's part as he went and sat down on a nearby chair, he looked at the pair "So, what did I miss?"

Yang was the one to answer "Well _your_ partner just slipped up and used a racial slur to _my_ partner for starters" Yang shot an angry glance at Weiss "But the White Fang attacked a civilian train that was transporting dust from Atlas to Vale."

"With their trained pet Dust Eaters of course!" Weiss spat out

Jaune swallowed back his words hard as Blake shot a quick knowing look at Jaune, Jaune spoke up after collecting his thoughts "Weiss, take a second and breathe, you just called Faunas 'animals' and we both know that's a pretty ugly racial slur, not to mention your insulting Dust Eaters"

Weiss paused and looked at Blake in brief shame "Sorry Blake, I wasn't trying to insult your people, but the white fang are butchers! Their using mindless predators to help them kill the people working for my family"

Blake spoke up "Look I get where your coming from, but both the White Fang and the Dust Eaters had their reasons for acting the way they do."

Weiss shouted out "It doesn't justify murder though! I get the White Fang has a reason to hate my father's company. and god help me, if I ever end up in control of it, I'll make it my life's work to change it for the better, but I can't forgive them for killing people who were only trying to provide for their families."

Jaune, no longer able to contain his annoyance spoke up "The SDC has destroyed families as well, and unless you've actually seen a Dust Eater, don't make assumptions."

Blake chimed in "I get it, that the White Fang killing people is wrong, it's horrible and I, wish, there was another-"

Jaune spoke up "But fighting gets results, it turns heads, Faunas die weekly in the SDC owned mines, and-" Jaune paused "I don't even know how many Dust Eaters died during the attack on their settlement in Vale" Jaune could feel himself shaking in anger thinking about everyone that died. "I'm frankly surprised that there isn't more Dust Eaters working with the White Fang now."

Weiss turned to Jaune "I _frankly_ don't care about some Semi-Sentient _lizards_ Jaune." Weiss spoke up to him.

Blake raised her voice to Weiss, mostly to defend Jaune "I'm sure they have to be more than _Semi-Sentient_ if they formed an alliance with the White Fang, if they were only in it to score dust then it wouldn't have taken their village being attacked for them to side with the Fang."

Jaune seethed quietly as he pulled on his coat ready to step out for a jog. He bit his cheek till it hurt to keep silent as he zipped up his sweater and put on his shoes.

Weiss shook her head "If Dust Eaters were as smart as you said, then why didn't they ever speak up, or try to tell their story. It's because they are animals, predators that Eat dust and endanger humanity by consuming the only weapon we have to fight back the Grimm!"

Jaune snapped at this point, he was biting his cheek, the dam didn't crack, is shattered at this point shouting at Weiss "Or maybe it's because we were never given a _fucking chance too!_ "

The room went silent as Jaune felt 3 sets of eyes suddenly turn and face him. Jaune's eyes shot wide as he realized what he just said out loud in front of his entire team.

Yang blinked several times and finally broke the silence "We?"

Jaune left the room pretty quickly after that...

* * *

 **By the way, that's not the twist...**


	20. Chapter 20: Weiss

**Hey everyone reading this, welcome to chapter 20 of Dust Eater, so were basically at the canon point of the episode "The Stray" and as you can see, this version of events is very much different. This story arc here, is really al about Weiss and Blake kinda like in canon. But while Yang is still Yang, Ruby is still Ruby, and Blake is mostly still Blake. Weiss is clearly no longer just canon Weiss. Our Weiss here is suffering from a rather Traumatic near death experience and it not her normal rational self here, which I hope plays out in how uncertian she comes off here in this chapter.**

 **On a more personal note, tomarrow here in America is Thanksgiving, and I wanted to once again say thanks to everyone who gives feedback and follow this story, When I first started writing it I thought as a first time writer I might get a small number of people chiming in on it every once in a blue moon, and maybe have 10, I guess 15 followers tops. I really never expected this to take off the way it did, and that really has inspired me to hammer out chapters at the rate I have been, so ... Yeah thanks! I'll see you all next chapter!**

Weiss has seen a great many expressions on her partners face before today, from the barely hidden contempt he look at her with at first. That look of concern he wore when the first met in the emerald forest. The pleased and impressed look he'd gave her after they slew the Deathstalker. Or even the patient smiles he would give her when they were studying together.

Weiss would have told you that that he even looked good when he was half asleep trying to talk her through another nightmare as she shook in his arms...

The one look she never expected to ever see on his face was _fear_. But when he fled the room just moments ago she saw the genuine fear in his face, not shock at what he just said out loud, but terror at the realization of what he just admitted to the room.

But it's all _lies_ , He was probably laughing at her the whole time, to think she let one of _them_ get close to her, a Dust Eater.

It has only few minutes since Jaune ran from the room, his secret revealed to the team, Weiss found her self following Yang and Blake as they tried to find Jaune. Blake seems to be following him out of some sense of camaraderie, Yang just looked like she wanted to chew him out for running.

Weiss wanted to kill him. He was a plant at the school to have her killed or something. Why else would Jaune want get so close to her.

Weiss shook herself out of the haze as Yang spoke up loudly to Blake as they walked. "Wait you _knew_ about Jaune?" Yang said trying to not sound to angry at her partner "You know and you didn't think to inform the rest of us?"

"It was not my place to say anything!" Blake said back to Yang "I mean and from the way you and Weiss are reacting, I think I was making the right choice."

Weiss spoke up finally "I just can't believe it, I mean surely he's just dangerously delusional, there's no actual way what he said was true right?" Weiss was thinking how _'maybe it had to be a mistake, this flew in the face of everything she read in the Watts report, and she was told Watts was a genius!"_

Yang stopped realizing they had no chance of finding Jaune blindly running through the school. "I think it's true, we knew a couple Dust Eaters in Patch, friends of my dad, if you didn't know better you couldn't tell them from anyone else?"

Weiss was mentally taken aghast, how could anyone be _friends_ with them?

Weiss spoke up "That can't be right, I read the Watts report, hell my family commissioned the report, it clearly describes Dust Eaters as dangerously gluttonous monsters!"

Yang and Blake both looked at Weiss with a cross of disappointment and concern, Yang spoke up "I guess if you never met one in person I can see how you'd think that... but that still puts us in a hell of a spot, Jaune is not going to be okay right now, he might even be a danger to himself, we need to track him down now!"

Weiss scoffed "Why?"

Blake shook her head "What do you mean why? He's your partner!"

Weiss letting a growing anger get the better of her lashed out "That _thing_ has been lying to all of us for months, letting us believe he was just another student, building our trust, getting close to us, to what end?"

Yang said sarcastically "Uh, to become a huntsmen?"

Blake added her own two cents "Look I'm fairly certain this hasn't exactly been a walk in the park for him either you know."

Weiss found herself not finding the words coming out right, after stammering a slight bit of gibberish for a second said "I'm not following you Blake"

Blake put a finger on her Weiss's chest "You."

Weiss spoke back defensively "What about me?"

Blake wanted to continue but she was interrupted by the high pitched voice of Yang's sister speaking "Hey what's wrong?"

Weiss watched as Yang with a shocked look on her face spin on her heels and turn to face her sister "Hey sis, nothing, were good, have you see Jaune by chance?"

Ruby spoke up "Yeah I just saw him leaving the locker hims and headed towards the bullhead's, I figured he was going into Vale."

Yang spoke with a barely restrained tone of anxiety "Did he say if he was coming back?!"

Ruby raised an eyebrow "He didn't say much of anything." Ruby paused "What do you mean 'if''?"

Yang looked back at the others before speaking "Look, Jaune just said something to us in the dorm room I don't think he meant for us to hear, and I'm worried now he might not think he can come back, if you can tell me anything as to where he might go..."

Ruby shook her head and spoke with a hint of sadness in her voice "So I guess you all know about him to then?" Ruby looked off to the side, Weiss actually noticed that she was wearing one of Jaune's hooded sweaters.

So _that's_ how it is then?

Yang put a hand over her mouth "You, knew Ruby?"

Ruby tried to force a smile "Of course I know what he is Yang, He's my best friend... Sorry I couldn't tell you too."

Yang put a hand on Ruby's shoulder to reassure her "That's okay, I'm not sure this is how Jaune would want us to know, but how did you find out?" Weiss was upset, and had half a mind to go to the headmaster over this.

Ruby blushed "Well I mean he's my best friend, not to mention the first friend I made here. I got worried about him when he started to get sick after his Dust..." Ruby glanced at Weiss "Went missing mysteriously, so it didn't take long for me to put two and two together... I actually helped him out with finding him some dust."

Weiss's thoughts were of disappointment in Ruby ' _Your a sweet girl Ruby, but you shouldn't have helped him like that..."_

Weiss Shook her head "I'm not following, I knew he was under the weather for a couple weeks but-"

"He was starving to death Weiss." Ruby barked out "What kind of partner are you to not notice something like that?"

Weiss went silent, she didn't even consider the possibility at the time that he was a Dust Eater, she shook the pangs of guilt that she started to feel off as she spoke up in her own defense "I didn't even know what he was, why would I think to suspect such a thing?"

Ruby pointed an angry finger at Yang "Sure but it's not like Yang didn't know what a Dust Eater was, she should have known."

Yang smacked Ruby's hand out of her face "Sis, I love you, but knock it the hell off, no one in our room had a reasons to suspect Jaune of being anything but normal."

Ruby rubbed her neck "Right, that make sense... sorry." The group went silent for a second "Anyways I guess it was really confirmed for me when we saw the news that..." Ruby paused and looked at Weiss again this time with a slight hint of anger. "That his hometown was attacked by the SDC..."

Weiss's eyes went wide and she stumbled back for a moment in a horrific realization. She found herself thinking of all the times she caught him staring at the pictures on his scroll. All those times he would go off alone to jog, or train, or study. Every kind word to her, and every argument they had, even when he protected her from that Mutant Ursa...

All of that was taking place while he was struggling with the fact that her fathers company had destroyed his home and... A flash of the ride on the bullhead when she saw him staring at the picture of his sister...

Weiss mentally kicked herself with the realization. Did he lose his sister because of her family?

Weiss looked at Ruby and spoke swallowing back fear before she could talk. "Ruby, did he say if he lost any family to that attack?"

Blake looked away, Jaune must have already told her about this.

Ruby shook her head and had to visibly force back tears before she answered "He called his dad after he heard about the attack, I never saw anyone hurt so deeply and completely as he did when he first head about his family..." Ruby rubbed her eyes "He lost two sisters, his twin and his youngest sister. His mother also lost a leg, last time I heard him him mention her, he said that she's still in a coma"

Weiss stumbled being caught by Yang "Oh my god..."

Blake wearing a look of cold calm spoke to the group. "Look we can all take turns giving him hugs later, but we need to find him before he does something incredibly stupid"

Ruby spoke up "Like what Blake?"

Blake looked at the entire group "Like Joining the White Fang."

* * *

Unfortunately for the group they they had to wait for the next bullhead into Vale, which gave Jaune a couple hours head start. and left Yang, Blake, Rwby and Weiss cooling heels waiting for the next transport back to beacon.

Something was bugging the hell out of Weiss though she had to ask. "Blake, how much do you know about the white Fang?"

Blake almost chocked on her drink when she was asked that. Yang answered for her. "Weiss, what the hell, just because she's a-" Yang looked at Ruby for a second.

Ruby shook her head "Faunus? Yeah I figured that out" Ruby got a playful look on her face "I know _all your secrets._ "

Weiss just looked at Yang "I'm a bit scared of your sister."

Yang smiled "You should be."

Blake finally stopped choking and got back to Weiss's question. "How do I know so much about the white fang?"

Weiss nodded "Yeah you seemed so sure Jaune would run to them."

Blake winced "At one point when we were talking, sharing his big secret with me, he mentioned his father was fighting with the Fang, Jaune was also aware of..." Blake struggles to even say the name "Adam Taurus..."

Weiss felt her stomach twist into knots, her partners father was actively battling her family. "Gods... the fact I had no idea any of this was going on... just shows how good he is at lying to us..."

Ruby chimed in "Well, from what you all said, he's probably scared of you..."

Weiss sighed "I get that... gods I saw the pictures of his sisters, heard stories of his home... and my family took that from him... I guess I wouldn't hold it against him if he ran off and joined the White Fang."

Yang reached into her coat and pulled out a scroll "Well at least we know he didn't have his scroll, so he won't be able to instantly call his father."

Ruby sighed "Yeah but that means we can't just ask the school to track him down"

Blake spoke out "We couldn't do that anyways, not without explaining why we needed to track down our own team leader."

Weiss's mind raced, where would he go, where could he go, if he couldn't get to the White Fang right away? She struggled to think of anything, any family in the area he could contact, she felt her heart break as she realized she didn't know anywhere he could go in the city. "God dammit did I ever really know him?"

Blake blinked and put a hand on Weiss's shoulder "Don't beat yourself up, he's had to keep secrets his entire life, he's pretty good at it... I think I know where their might be a few White Fang safe houses in Vale we could look at though"

Weiss joined everyone in looking at Blake. a few moments passed before she explained "Fine... I used to be part of the White Fang okay? but it's in the past."

Yang turned to Weiss who was feeling particularly flabbergasted "Damn Weiss you really won the teammate lottery here, you got a Dust Eater and a former terrorist."

Weiss shook her head in frustration "Yang I don't care about that right now, I really don't, I just want us to find Jaune."

Ruby shook her head "We won't find him at this rate, lets go back, think of a plan and if he's not back by tomorrow we can go back out into town okay?"

* * *

Later on that evening Weiss woke up in a cold sweat... another nightmare. With not quite all her neuron's quite firing yet she sat up and was about to crawl over to Jaune's bed, but when he hand hit the bed all she felt was cold sheets that had not been occupied or disturbed since the morning...

Weiss just sat in her own bed staring at Jaune's empty bed as the tears started to run down her face. She couldn't fight it. She was at the same time furious at all the lies he told them, but desperately needing him back.

Even though they talked about it, going out as a team in the morning, she couldn't wait any longer, and so, at three in the morning, Weiss Schnee got out of bed and decided she was going to Vale.

And she was not coming back without her partner.


	21. Chapter 21

**So fun fact, I actually wrote this chapter, and part of the next chapter over thanksgiving while my kids were in the other room losing their shits because of the Macy's thanksgiving day Parade, I took a few breaks here and their to help my wife, who bless her heart is starting to suffer a bit from arthritis at a horridly young age, and to play with the kids, one who's still a toddler, and as a result, I fear this chapter might come off as a bit disjointed at times.**

 **So I kinda want to talk about what the fuck i'm doing to Weiss in this fic, as we are starting to see some dangerously OOC changes for her, changes, that I fear maybe coming a bit too quickly. As a character, we've really emotionally beat the hell out of the poor girl, she was injured in a battle against a Mutant Grimm, her weapon was detonated by her partner in a gambit to kill a Monster that was out of his punching weight class by several magnitudes. She found out that her Partner, who she is emotionally dependent on, is the thing she was raised to hate without question, and now might be gone from her life. Well we messed her up pretty Bad the last few chapters. But the fact that she hasn't been broken by all of it yet, I hope, speaks volumes to the strength the Weiss had even in the early days of the canon show, she was bent, she bowed, but she never broke.**

 **She's also making the fatal mistake Jaune has been making for a good half dozen or so chapters now. Besides the scene in the alley when Jaune learned of his sisters deaths, have we seriously seem him grieve at all? Oh sure I've been hammering it home with all the subtlety of a Semi truck driving through a China shop that he's upset about their loss, and that loss is driving his actions. But, and I hope this comes out the way I wanted it to, He's not _grieving_ for them. Hell I haven't even really depicted Jaune openly dwelling on his youngest sister Jade, not because he forgot about her, but because as a pre-adolescent Dust Eater, he wouldn't have pictures of her on his scroll due to her being too young to hide her dust eater traits. Dragon Lord Syed 101 in the comments for the last chapter pointed out that, honestly, we do need a chapter depicting Weiss's realization into the horrors of what her family did, and believe me that's coming. But she's not in a situation during this chapter where she's letting herself pause, and dwell on it. **

**The two major themes I wanted to build on during this Volume of the fic, besides the tried and true "Hatred is taught, not something your born with", Is the importance of allowing yourself to _feel._ Be it something cliche as a crush on a classmate, or allow yourself to, frankly, cry over a dead loved one. Jaune is failing at that, and Weiss to a lesser extent is failing at that as well.**

 **Also as a minor aside, several of you in the reviews, 77coke and Kronus18 in particular, was asking the question as to how the hell was Weiss going to catch a Bullhead into Vale at 3am, I chock that up to bad writing on my part, and I baked the explanation to that into this chapter. Also, I loved writing the first part of this chapter where Jaune, Ruby, and Weiss were building Weiss's new weapon, I hope you all agree with me on that, and I'll see you all next chapter.**

* * *

 _3 days after the Forever Fall Incident_

"Weiss you really shouldn't be up and moving yet" Jaune said to her as they were walking side by side, Jaune's arm was still bandaged up and in a sling, an injury he sustained because of her.

Weiss Would make it up to him, she swore to herself "I'm going stir crazy, I know I can sit through a class, but since they have us excused from combat class-"

"The have all of us excused from combat class, a bunch of first years just whooped the crap out of a bunch of super Grimm, that earned us a few days off." Jaune boasted

"Everyone but me..." Weiss said bitterly as she was walking with what was left of her blade, Jaune had explained that it got wedged in a tree and the heat from the Mutant Ursa's fires caused the dust in the chambers to eventually explode leaving the blade in it's current state..

Jaune said it was the only reason they were alive. Weiss caught a glance at herself in a window reflection at her self, god if her sister could see her like this, not even wearing a dress, walking in a simple dark blue hooded sweater and jeans with white boots, no makeup what so ever. Weiss would only admit it later, but maybe Jaune was rubbing off on her.

At least she was not wearing his sweaters. she didn't care how good he smelled she wasn't going to go that far.

"Your being to hard on yourself Weiss" Jaune chimed in. "From most accounts except for maybe Ruby and Pyrrha we really drew an unlucky straw on that battle."

Weiss sighed, full of doubts, and unwilling to let herself off the hook "Lets get this over with" as she walked through a door that Jaune held open for her to the school's foundry where Ruby was waiting for them.

Ruby was wearing his sweater again. for some reason this bothered Weiss.

"Hey guys, so I guess we get to rebuild your weapon eh Weiss?" Ruby smiled as she leaned against one of the plasma cutters in the room

"If we can, I don't see how we could even repair Myrtenaster in this state..." Weiss said

Weiss set the broken weapon on a drafting table as the trio sounded it, the hilt was mostly intact but the revolving dust chambers were slagged, and the blade was in pieces and missing, it honestly would have been easier to make a new weapon.

While Weiss was feeling sorry for herself she watched Jaune slip on a pair of glasses and immediately start to draft out rough sketch of the original shape of the weapon from his memory.

"I didn't know you wore glasses Jaune" Weiss said to her partner

"I normally don't have to, I have almost perfect vision, I only use them when I need to make sure I'm seeing super fine details like when I'm drawing" Jaune said while working

Ruby whistled standing next to Jaune, maybe a bit to close for Weiss's liking "That's really good Jaune, I didn't know you could draw that well"

Jaune blushed a bit at a comment "Well you know, everyone has their hobbies.." He turned to fave Weiss. "Weiss does this look right? if it does we can take your weapon apart and start to draft up parts for the plasma cutter"

Weiss sighed and leaned back "I don't know, Maybe I should take this as a sign that i'm not cut out for this, you had to bail me out, what... twice now?"

Jaune took on a stern expression "Knock that shit off, just because you couldn't solo the entire emerald forest doesn't mean your not qualified to be here."

Weiss tried to pull herself out of the funk she had been in the last few days it wasn't until she felt Jaune put a hand on her shoulder and start to speak again was she really listening "I'm being serious, I know we got off to a bad start but neither of us would be here talking, without having each others backs."

Ruby spoke up "You know, you might be a little right though Weiss, maybe it's time Myrtenaster was put to rest."

Weiss shook her head "I used Myrtenaster since I was a child, I'd hate to have to part with it now!"

Jaune shrugged and took his hand off of her "Let me ask you this, why did you come to Beacon."

Weiss fixed her gaze on her shattered weapon "I suppose... I wanted ot make something out of myself, I wanted to get out of the shadow my name cast down on me, if only for a couple years."

Jaune ran a finger over the broken blade of the sword coming "It was a pretty good sword, and i'm sure you treasured it for what it was, did you make it yourself?"

Weiss chuckled and looked to the side "No, my dad hired a friend of his to design and make the weapon for me, to take advantage of what he felt of my so called strengths.

Jaune leaned in close and at eye level with her. "Beacon is going to turn us into Huntsmen, hopefully damn good ones, were all going to learn from the mistakes we make, and man I've already made more than a few. This school is going to forge us into heroes right?"

Weiss nodded uncertainly."I guess so, but what does this have to do wi-"

"Maybe we should forge you a blade, not one that's your fathers idea of what you should be, but a blade of who you really are inside." Jaune smiled at her with a understanding look on his face.

A Blade of my own, one made for who I am, and not who my father wants me to be.

"Regina Glacies" Weiss found her self muttering

Ruby smiled "Old Altesian for Ice Queen, I like it." Ruby carefully set Weiss's broken weapon aside and pulled out a new drafting sheet "Okay, so Weiss you tell Jaune what you want in your weapon, and Jaune will draft it out, and i'll help you work the shop equipment to forge out the weapon, and might I advise, Damascus steel, is so very you."

Weiss couldn't help but smile at her friends, and she found herself watching her partner a bit closer than normal that day, every day since then.

* * *

 _Current day 4:30am_

Weiss was cleaned up and ready to head out, rather than her combat skirt which would stuck out like a sore thumb, she opted for her light blue colored hooded sweater, good quality brown hiking boots, and a pair of comfortable blue Jeans.

She didn't want to look like a Huntsmen, because that might spook off Jaune, she however did reach into her locker and pulled out _Regina Glacies._ She took a moment to admire the blade. Her new weapon was designed with practicality in mind, it wasn't as fancy or ornate looking as her old weapon, the revolver like chambers were there, but they didn't rotate, and they didn't have the glass vial look, Ruby helped design a new system to feed the dust into the blade the same way her old sword did, but without the risk of the dust igniting in the same way that destroyed her old weapon.

the squeezed the handle and watched as the blade retraced into the hilt, the weapon also had built in a semi automatic pistol into it for range fighting. the handle itself curved inward for an easier fencing grip. but also allowed her to fire the embedded pistol like a normal gun.

She held the Damascus weapon in her hand and smiled, to her this blade was, despite what Jaune said, not really completely her, but had a bit of it's father Jaune in it. She ran her fingers over a lovingly etched snowflake that he drew into the hilt with a smile.

"When did this happen Jaune, when did I start to give more of a damn about this school and my team than my own family? I'm about to betray every thing my family taught me. I'm teamed up with a former terrorist, and i'm about to go out and hunt for my partner, who in the eyes of my family, is a complete monster." She hooked the weapon to her belt with a quick release clip built into it "A monster wouldn't be able to make something like this. And I wouldn't would care about them this much."

She zipped up her light blood hooded sweater after tying her hair back into a pony tail "Lets see, the First bullhead leaves for Vale at five to take the overnight cleaning and support staff home for the day. I should be able to catch a ride on it."

As she started to walk to the Bullhead bay she really thought about it, it's amazing just how many people it takes to keep a facility the size of Beacon running, Janitors, maintenance personal, cooks, or even overnight medical staff. She never gave much thought before now, but it's something that's going to linger on the back of her mind going forward.

As she reached the Bullhead bay, she watched the support personal chat among themselves, either griping about their shift, or telling jokes to each other, she even listened to two overnight security guards joke how they caught some student making out with his Fanaus girlfriend and sent them running back to the dorms. Weiss blushed a bit at that realizing that they were probably talking about Velvet and Cardin.

As the bullheads landed, she slipped on board with the workers and tried her best to blend in and vanish into the pre-dawn morning grind.

* * *

Ruby heard a frantic knocking on her door about seven in the morning, she answered the door to a frantic looking Yang. Ruby turned and looked at Pyrrha lounging on her bed nearby, Ren and Nora had gone into town last night and were not expected back till later.

"Ruby, we have a problem, a big one." Yang said with concern.

Ruby's face scrunched up in concern as she saw Blake already dressed stepped out of the room behind Yang "what happened?"

Yang said almost in a panic "Weiss is gone, and she took her weapon with her."

Ruby felt her stomach twist into knots "Your not thinking..."

Yang sighed "Yeah I think she's snapped, we need to go now!"

Pyrrha chimed in "Wait what's going on? is their anything I can help out with?"

Ruby Gave Yang the 'don't' look, Yang slightly nodded and spoke up. "Pyrrha, under most circumstances i'd welcome your help, but this is going to be something we want to be low key about and your... Well..."

"High profile, I understand" Pyrrha said "When Ren and Nora gets back what do you want me to tell them?"

Ruby hugged her partner "Just tell them I went out for a day with my sister, and that I left you in charge!"

Pyrrha waved them off and slumped back into her bed Ruby vowed to make it up to her.

* * *

In their full gear, the impromptu and informal 3 girl team of Ruby, Yang, and Blake stepped off the bullhead around eight in the morning, Jaune has a full day alone in Vale by this point, and Weiss had a several hour head start on them all. Blake living up to her role as a team scout was talking to the team of a plan she came up with on the ride over.

"So if Weiss is hitting the same safe houses that we are, we should do them in reverse order on the list, it might be safe to assume that she would have by this point, checked the first several sites on the list." Blake said as she walked list in hand.

"That's actually a pretty solid idea Blake" Yang said "I mean it's a long shot, but if we find Jaune first then may be can maybe talk Weiss down fr-" Yang was quickly as she felt a hand grab her shoulder, Ruby and Blake saw a head of blonde hair grab on to Yang and hoped for a second it would have been Jaune, but last time any of them looked, Which they all had some in detail, Jaune didn't have a Monkey tail.

"Quick, a couple police officers are going to come down this way in 30 seconds, you have to tell them you know me!" the mysterious monkey tailed boy said

"But we don't know you!" Yang stated mater of factually.

"My name is Sun Wukong, now you know me!" The boy now known as Sun stated

As if by clockwork two police officers bolted around the corner screaming for the group to freeze.

Ruby's mind went blank, they came to Vale to find Weiss and Jaune and now they were about to be arrested. Yang thinking fast threw arms around Sun and shouted "Brother it's great to see you!"

Everyone including the police wore a slightly flabbergasted expression on their face one police officer with "Heywood" spoke up sounding like a slowed down version of professor Oobleck "Excuse me ma'am, do you know this Faunus?"

"Of course I do, he's my adopted brother visiting from out of town, we go way back, like my whole life way back!" Yang said in a bright and perky tone as she was pulling the Monkey Tailed Faunas close to her in a 'sisterly' hug.

The two police officers shook their heads and wandered off, one of them, sounding strangely close to Ruby's dad said "I told you that you shouldn't profile every person you see partner..." as they rounded the corner and out of sight.

the now 4 person group stood their awkwardly until the police left, once was confident that they wouldn't be heard Blake asked plainly "Yang what the hell was that? did you just adopt a potentially wanted felon as your new brother?"

Sun spoke up "Actually i'm not wanted for anything, Those cops thought I was part of the White Fang just because I'm a Faunas, what the hell is wrong with this city?"

Blake spot up "why on earth would they think you were part of the White Fang?"

Sun sighed "Well I'm not sure, I guess they said there was a high profile Dust Robbery, they even said the White Fang had a Dust Eater working with them!"

Ruby exchange glances with the other girls on the team, Ruby spoke up "Did they describe the Dust Eate.r"

Sun threw his arms up "I wasn't exactly given a chance to ask questions while they were chasing me down!"

Yang spoke up "I guess we could chase that lead and see if we can learn anything?"

Sun held a hand up to protest "Wait, you _want_ to seek out the White Fang? Are you all _Insane?"_ Sun paced taking a few steps back as he continued "Do you have any idea how many White Fang their are in Vale right now?"

Blake smirked "No, But I bet you do, right?"

Ruby stepped over to Sun "Please, tell us everything you know, our friends's lives may be at stake here!

Ruby saw Sun go through a various array of faces before settling on resignation. "Okay, here's what I know"

* * *

Around ten AM, Weiss who had already been up for 7 hours was lurking near one of the White Fang safe houses, she knew it was a long shot at this point, if Jaune had not yet made contact with his father, than how would he even think to arrive here?

Weiss had her hood pulled up, and was leaning against the horrifically dingy wall of the alley she was in. She had a very real idea how stupid the idea she was pondering was. She was, for better or worse, probably in the top five of the White Fang's kill list, and she was actively seeking them out to try and find her missing partner.

As she heard footsteps approaching from behind her, she honestly should not have been surprised with was was about to happen.

"Well Well boys what do we have here" She head as she turned to see a uniformed White fang member flanked by several more. "Look like we got a would be spy in our midst"

Weiss felt a bit of disgust with how the approaching men were looking at her. "I honestly don't know what your talking about, I was actually expecting to see a friend here."

The White fang member stepped forward drawing his blade "Then little lady, why are you packing a weapon?" Weiss noticed the men behind him also drawing blades as well

Weiss pulled her weapon off it's belt-clip and aimed at the lead White fang Member "Well, I'm told this is kind of a bad neighborhood."

The white fang member smirked at her, pointing his own blade at her. "Aye, and your about to see how bad it could be little hunter."


	22. Chapter 22

**So I don't have a whole hell of a lot to say about this chapter directly, I'm pretty worn down by a surprisingly challenging weekend that leads into my work weeks starting by the time you read this chapter. I'm trying to write towards a set goal in every arc, and I have a set goal I want to reach by the time I hit the Volume 3 chapters, and honestly this is one of those chapters that's designed to aim the plot at the goal for the story arc. I kinda see this one being resolved by around chapter 24 or 25. After that I'm going play it by ear for a few chapters and have fun with it before we tackle volume 2.**

 **I want to take a share a bit of the behind the scenes ramblings about this fic, but i'll save it for the end. if your not really into that sort of thing, I'll see you next chapter.**

* * *

Weiss stood read for long and ugly fight, her Gun-Rapier in hand as she watched the 5 White Fang thugs fan out to form a semi circle around her with their blades drawn. Regina Glacies was locked in it's gun form, but she could change her weapon's form in a heart beat if she needed to, Weiss took defensive stance as the the White Fang thugs readied to attack.

Part of her wanted them to hurry up and get it over with, she honestly didn't have all day.

The one on the far right charged first, she pulled the trigger of her weapon and shot the Thug twice in the leg with her weapon, loaded with rubber rounds used for training at the school, the Thug went down like a sack of potatoes, but not fatally wounded, as the rest charged in mass.

The second from the left slashed horizontally at her neck, Weiss ducked low below the swing and put two rounds into the thugs side as he stumbled past her, causing him to crumple, she figured she only had a few moments before they realized that her gun was armed with less lethal rounds and stop fearing being shot by it.

The far left Thug was almost on top of her, she held up two fingers and formed a glyph next to his head, she gestured violently to her left as the glyph slammed into the side of the Thug's head sending him crashing head first into the wall next to them. At least that was one down for the count, she thought as with her blade arm she squeezed the handle and deployed Regina Glacies's blade into a short sword configuration. She quietly thanked Ruby for talking her into allowing her to craft the blade to be able to extending to variable lengths for situations like this one.

The thug second from the right put two and two together as he charged screaming at the others "She's a Schnee, kill the bitch!" as he made a clumsy diagonal swing down at her left shoulder. In a single fluid motion she stood up twirling the blade in her right hand swatting away the strike and smacking the thug with the flat of her blade in the neck, the fact that unlike her old blade, her new blade was about twice as thick meant that, although it was heavier than she was accustomed to, it hit with more than enough force to cause the thug to drop back holding his neck and coughing.

Finally the middle thug closed the gap, the that had been leering at her like a piece of meat Stepped in flourishing blade in what he must of thought was an intimidating fashion before ending it in a straight thrust like that wasn't the first thing she learned to defend herself from, she gave a thanks to her sister mentoring her in basic swordsmen ship as a child before performed glyph assisted leap up over the thrust, pushing down the blade with her foot and causing the thug to become unbalanced as she flipped over him, when she landed she put two fingers to the ground causing a glyph to form under the thug. As the glyph caused the thug's local gravity to reverse for a few seconds launching him into the air, she jokingly said "Pull!" as converted her weapon back to pistol form, turned, and fired a pair of rounds at the thug. one Round hitting the thug in his sword arm disarming him, the second round struck the thug in the head knocking him out as the thug hit the ground.

"Well that's two, I don't suppose the rest of you want to give up now do you?" she said with confidence as the other three White fang thugs got to their feet.

To their credit, they waited a whole 30 seconds before the three charged at her in mass. The first one swung wide and high and was easy to duck under, the second one came down with a vertical cleave that Weiss was able to roll around like a dancer. She redeployed her blade back to shortsword leangh and fed yellow dust into the blade before she sliced up the White fangs back with the flat of the blade, The yellow dust created a high intensity electric field around the blade that shocked the thugs nervous system on contact. In effect stunning the the Thug like it was struck by a Taser and putting him down for the count. The last one tried a flying around house kick, but only kicked a Glyph Weiss raised that was designed to reflect the force back on it's attacker causing the thug to go down screaming as the force of his own kick fractured his ankle.

She was surprised to see the last thug charge her while she was momentary flatfooted, then get laid out as a girl with orange hair and a light brown dress that had just sucker punched him into a wall.

Weiss playfully twirled Regina Glacies in her hand as the blade retracted saying "I told you I was waiting for a friend."

The orange haired girl smiled wide playfully and and giggled.

* * *

Ruby and gang ended up in a quite coffee shop to plan. "So what your saying is that when you were... uh 'disembarking from your totally legal boat ride into Vale' You think you saw some White fang members lurking near a warehouse?"

Sun had half a mouth full of chocolate muffin swallowed hard before speaking "Well not just that, one of them mistook me for a new recruit and was trying to get me to help unload a boat of theirs that had just arrived."

"Thank the gods for the idiot ball" Yang said leaning back in her seat. "So do we have a plan to hit this thing or what?"

Blake spoke up "I think I'd like to know why they need a warehouse in the docks first, it's not normal for the White Fang to require that kind of infrastructure in a given area."

Ruby had to think about it for a bit "Yeah I don't know a whole lot about the White Fang, your kinda our expert their Blake."

Blake rubbed her neck while talking "I can understand why they would need Dust, I mean they have Dust Eaters working with them now, and they have to eat. they also need it for weapons, but how much of both do they need to stockpile." Blake pointed her fork at no one in particular "I'm also wondering, are they bringing there weapons and dust into Vale, or are they taking it all out of Vale?"

No one in the group had a solid answer for Blakes question. Blake kept talking "I still think finding Weiss and Jaune should be high on our list of priorities." Blake paused for a second "But knowing that the White Fang is stealing Dust and weapons in massive quantities in Vale... I hate to say it, but I feel like Jaune and Weiss can wait..."

"So your saying we should ignore the fact that the Ice Queen is in vale, _Armed_ , and looking for Jaune?" Yang spoke up

"We don't know for sure that she came to Vale for the purpose of murdering Jaune" Blake retorted

"Blake, if you learned that your boyfriend was the literal monster your parents warned you about, what would you do?" Yang asked as she folded her arms across her chest.

"Run away and Join Beacon Academy it turns out, but that's besides the point right now." Blake said with a perfectly straight face.

Ruby sheepishly stated "I don't think Jaune and Weiss are going out."

Blake said in the same flat, mater of fact tone "Not that she wasn't trying."

Sun had to Jump in at this point "Uh, look i'm sure your friends are very lovely non murdering people, but shouldn't we be focusing on the big picture, like how I have no idea how I let you all rope me into this?"

Yang shrugged at Sun "It's because we adopted you remember?"

Sun shrugged "Fair enough..."

Blake hand clapped at the group loudly to refocus their attention. "So what's the plan then, do we want to scope this place out or not?"

Ruby sighed "I guess that the White Fang is the bigger problem now, I'm sorry Yang, but I agree with Blake, we should focus on that, and hope that Weiss doesn't murder Jaune."

Ruby looked out the window, she didn't really thing Weiss was going to kill Jaune... but she wasn't certain of that fact either.

* * *

"Then it's decided Friend Weiss, I will help you find friend Jaune!" The girl Weiss learned was named Penny stated boldly.

"That really won't be necessary, I don't want to get anyone involved in my problems." Weiss said holding her hands up and smiling awkwardly.

Penny Moved in an oddly stiff way and held a finger up in front of her as if to momentary shush Weiss "I will not hear it, I was taught that friends are supposed to help each other friend Weiss, and I will help you find friend Jaune."

Weiss with difficulty lowered Penny's arm "Wait, you haven't even met Jaune yet, how can you be sure he'd be your friend, he's... kinda an acquired taste."

Penny put her hands on her hip and proudly stated "I was taught that strangers are friends you have not met yet!"

Weiss put a hand on her head "Penny, I can't drag you into this, if you got hurt I'd feel terrible."

Penny shook her head back and forth with a unnaturally stiff vigor "I was taught to never abandon a friend in need Friend Weiss."

Weiss realized she wasn't going to win this one, she started walking up to the door of the hideout she had been staking out and prayed they didn't have the place alarmed as she put a Glyph on the lock that would weaken it and then shot it with her weapon blowing the lock out completely.

Not hearing any alarms go off, she looked at Penny and asked "So, do we go in or?"

Penny looked around awkwardly "I don't detect any alarm systems friend Weiss."

Weiss didn't know what to make of it, but as she reloaded some fresh rounds into her weapon she started to enter, with her nerves already on edge from a lack of sleep and her recent bout, she took it slow and careful going in.

"Let me know if you find anything helpful" Weiss whispered

"Like what? I don't know what i'm looking for Friend Weiss" Penny replied

Weiss stopped and thought about it for a second "Uh... just look for anything Dust Eater or White Fang Related."

Weiss and Penny looked around in Silence. As time passed Weiss's stomach turned with a growing fear as she started to realize that they had nothing to work with here. "Penny I'm starting to think we just beat up five White Fang thugs for no reason"

Penny turned and looked at Weiss "Friend Weiss, that is an inaccurate statement, I believe you meant to say that you beat up five members of the White Fang for no reason."

"Semantics Penny, Semantics." Weiss said as she started to think out loud "So this was a bust, Maybe we move on to the next Safe house or-"

Penny before Weiss could finish that though was next to her covering her mouth whispering "Friend Weiss, we need to hide, I hear someone approaching!"

Weiss was barely able to protest as Penny lifted her up off her feet and drug her into a nearby closet. Once Weiss was inside the closet, she noted that both as a blessing and a curse she could see through the slats in the closet door.

Weiss tried as tried as best she could to calm her breathing while she was listening to the heavy footfalls that had started to walk through the safe house. She heard the sounds of crashing in another room as she tried to stay whisper quiet in the closet. Weiss couldn't help but notice briefly, that for as quiet as she was being, she couldn't even hear Penny breathing at all.

Trouble started as the long minutes of stomping and crashing dragged on and Weiss started to feel her legs cramp up in the close confined space. She tried to shift her weight to relieve the pain. but as she did she heard something in the closet shift loudly. To Weiss's horror she heard the noises in the other end of the house go silent.

She heard Penny whisper next to her "I believe they heard you."

Weiss tried to hold her breathe the best she could as she heard the heavy footsteps come back into the room. She couldn't clearly make out the person through the slats, but it was clear she could see white scales on one of their arms as the figure stood in the room silent.

"Julius, did you find anything?" She heard a voice say from the doorway leading out of the safe house.

"Not so far, call it in and tell Adam we need to abandon this Safe house." she heard the Man outside of her door shout back.

"Well we need to find out who keeps knocking off these safe houses Julius!" The other voice called out.

 _"Wait that sounds like this wasn't the first one to get taken out, is Ruby and the others working on these as well?"_ Weiss thought to herself.

"That doesn't mater right now, Just tell Adam to-" The man stooped talking as a scroll started ringing.

The man answered his phone and with a slight bit of surprise in his voice stated out "Jaune-" She could hear the man start to pace outside the door just out of sight "Slow down and take a deep breath, what happened?"

Weiss looked at Penny as she tried to listen in to the conversation the silver scaled man kept talking "I see. So the Schnee girl found out then... I told you that you should have killed her when you had the chance."

 _"Wait, was he really at Beacon to kill me?"_ Weiss's shaking hand covered her mouth.

"Son, I understand your upset, I know you wanted to follow in Bianca's footsteps and become a huntsmen like her, but it wasn't in the cards, this is not your fault, this is the fault of the system that holds our kind down, the tries to slaughter us like vermin." saidt he tall man she now realized was Jaune's father as spoke into his phone.

She couldn't make out what Jaune was saying on the other end of the phone, she wasn't sure she wants to at the moment. the unseen voice called out "Julius man lets go! we need to report back!"

She could see Jaune's father waving the other man off "Fine, I need a moment first!" The large man then went back to his conversation, "Listen, I need you to go to a night club called Juniors, go now. I have a few other maters to attend to here, but i'll meet you their tonight, and then we can discuss what we can do with you."

Weiss watched through the slats of the closet door. as she swore she saw Jaune's father look directly at the closet door with amusement. Just as she was about to slip into panic and charge out, Julius turned and walked away from the closet door "Lets go, we need to check the other safe houses to make sure they were not compromised!"

Penny and Weiss waited in that closet for several minutes to make sure it was safe, Penny reassured her that she couldn't hear anyone in the area. Weiss finally had a solid lead to act on.

"Okay then." Weiss said trying to steady her nerves. "Looks like were going bar hopping!"

* * *

 **So I wanted to talk about how I came up with the idea of Dust Eaters. Believe it or not, the original prototype of this idea came to my head while I was playing the game Prototype. For those you not familiar with that game it was a, I want to say PS3 era video game, about a viral outbreak of a super virus in New York, that turned people into zombies and the main hero into an abomination that has freakish body horror powers including the ability to fuel his powers by eating people, turning his limbs into blades and other weapons, and so on.**

 **This led me to an idea I'll call "Grimm Eater" Which involved a version of Jaune that, like the main character of Prototype, gained via his Semblance, the ability to absorb slain grim, to use their powers against Grimm. So he's kill a Beowolf and gain the ability to use a Beowolf's speed, or it's claws. and so on. I never did anything with that idea, partially because I remembered that White Sheep was a thing, which is of course a better fic than anything I could hope to write. But I also didn't feel like that would lend itself to a likable version of Jaune. I also had a hard time believing that anyone would accept Jaune like that, you get the idea.**

 **But the idea stuck around in my head, I eventually got into a half year long round robin table top RPG campaign of a generally obscure Japanese written RPG called Double Cross, which was about a world where an insanity causing virus that gives you super powers infects the world, and awesome stuff happens. I played a generally emo as fuck amnesiac with ice powers, and I honestly fell in love with the concept and started to think as to how I could convert that idea to RWBY. Also fun fact, Originally Jaune was going to be an Ice Dust Eater, not a Yellow Dust eater.**

 **So I ended up merging the "Grimm Eater" Idea with the idea of a elemental using fighter version of Jaune, and ended up coming up with the basic idea of Jaune (And only Jaune) having a semblance that allowed him to eat Ice dust and use Ice powers as a semblance.**

 **That Started to mutate when I started to think "Okay well if I'm going to give Jaune ice powers then surely their must be people out their with other elemental powers right?" and thus the early prototype of the Dust Eater was created. Back then they didn't have hard limits as to what they could do, were still basically human and all the dust eating was a semblance...**

 **Then Hazel became and I realized I needed to make it more unique. so that's where the first version of the Transformation into a true form came into play. Originally I wanted it to be a full on were dragon thing, but as time went on, and realizing that other better writers have done the ware dragon thing better than me, I started to kinda file the edges off of the concept, originally Jaune's true form caused him to grow a foot and height and be fully covered in yellow scales, then I removed that and made it so only his arms and legs were given scales. I started Playing Monster Hunter world and like the idea of someone conducting elemental power through fur on their body, which is why the final version of the dust eater has fur on their forearms shoulders and legs. You see where i'm going.**

 **Hell the last two things I changed before sitting down to writing Chapter 1, was changing Jaune from an Ice user with Light blue hair, to electricity so I could keep him with yellow hair, and then changing him from having a past legacy of great heroes, to being from a Dust mining town, that required me to lost his signature weapon, and since I figured his people would find themselves fighting in tight cramped spaces, like a Mine, so I replaced it with forearm blades.**

 **After I created the race, I had to figure out how to integrate them into the world, which I'll touch on in a later chapter if people are interested.**


	23. Chapter 23

**So we have a, not really long awaited reunion of the pair, Jaune disappeared from, the scene, and I might later go back and write what he was doing during this time, but I'm not sure. I don't have a while lot to say yet, but I'll add a bit to the end like I do when I don't want to discuss the actuall contents of the chapter in detail.**

* * *

Weiss and Penny arrived at Juniors night club about three pm, she had not been in contact with the rest of her team for almost 12 hours. If she was lucky, Jaune would be here, there was just the small issue of actually getting inside of the place.

"Any ideas Penny?" she spoke to penny as the pair stood across the street, a faint rain had started to fall.

"I estimate you would have the best chance of success if you went through the front door friend Weiss." Penny said.

"You think it would be that easy?" Weiss said with a smirk at her new friend.

"I do not see any reason it wouldn't friend Weiss" Penny said with a wide smile.

Weiss sighed and pulled her hood up "Wait here okay? I shouldn't be to long."

Penny tilted her head "friend Weiss, I'm confused, are you here to find friend Jaune to help him? Or are you here to hurt him?"

Weiss looked at Penny "Why do you ask?"

"Friend Weiss, I am having a difficult time deciding what your motivations for seeking out friend Jaune are, you have spoken about him as a friend, and as an enemy, I am not sure which he really is to you." Penny said putting a finger to her chin as if thinking.

Weiss thought about it for a moment, she took out her gun rapier and replaced the magazine of rubber bullets with a clip of live hollow point rounds. "Penny, I'm just going to decide once I see him."

Penny Tilted her head in confusion "I do you you are successful regardless of your decision friend Weiss."

Weiss smiled sadly as she clipped her weapon back onto her belt and started to walk towards the front door and inside the building. "As am I Penny."

* * *

Jaune was not hard to find, he was sitting at the bar slumped forward over it staring at a drink had slid him, he was never much of a drinker if he had to be honest, and the two sips of the drink he did take of his drink to 'calm his nerves' didn't help change that aspect of him, he reached up and rubbed his unshaven face as he heard someone sit down next to him, and slide a scroll in front of him.

"You forgot that at school" He heard the all to familiar voice of Weiss Scene say to him.

Jaune slid his glass away and picked up the Scroll to look it over "Seems I did."

The Silence between the two was thick, Jaune discreetly waved off Junior when he saw the bartender reach for something under the bar. "So are you here to talk or to blow my brains out?"

Weiss voice cracked a bit "I-I'm leaving my options open to be honest."

Jaune ran both hands through his scraggly blonde hair as the stress of the last day and a half caught up to him "How did you find me?" he asked quietly.

Weiss shook her head and face him "Dose it god damn mater how right now?"

Jaune look up and straight at the bar mirror, so he wouldn't have to look straight tat her, he clinched his fists together and stared at the mirror. "Well considering the only person who knew I was here was my dad, I wanted to make sure I still had one of those."

Weiss spoke up "Jaune that's not fa-"

Jaune roared out "Neither is was your family did to my people Weiss!" Jaune slammed his hand down on the counter in anger "When I left for beacon, there was five hundred and twenty nine people in my village, and I had 7 sisters" Jaune took a precious several moments to try and fight back his anger. "The last time I talked to my uncle, our village-" He stopped to rethink his words "My entire species, had three hundred and sixteen people left in it, and I had five sisters."

Jaune grabbed his head and tried to fight back the sobs "My twin sister and my youngest sister were both shot in the head, they were executed, they couldn't even fight back! Little Jade, she was 5... she couldn't even hide her scales yet..."

Weiss put a hand on her partners shoulder "Is that why you ran? Were you worried I was going to attack you too?"

Jaune didn't answer the question, Weiss spoke what she thought "I see, you were scared of me then..." Weiss covered her eyes as she fought back tears "You have been in pain for so long and I never noticed it once, you tried to be there for me as your partner, even while you tried to hide how much you hated my guts didn't you?"

Jaune shot daggers at Weiss from the mirror "I honestly wanted to kill you the day I got the call, you can thank the headmaster for stopping me."

Weiss was taken back "I guess I'm glad for that then, I'm not sure i'm ready to die to be honest." She looked at Jaune "Do you still want to see me dead?"

Jaune closed his eyes "I just want my sisters back, I want to go back to a time where I knew my twin sister was out camping in the woods. A Time where my youngest sister still wanted to be a princess. Hell Even a time where my mom would still be shouting at us kids to come in for dinner, while my dad worked in the mine..." Jaune turned to face Weiss with tried eyes "But I can't change what happened, I can't have that life back, I'm not even sure I could really hope to go back to the school now that you know the truth."

Weiss shook her head "You have the school, Ruby's still wearing that damn hoodie of yours." Weiss made it a point to unhook her weapon and set it on the counter. "Blake is still reading those trashy smut books of hers, Yang is still trying to mother us the death while hitting on any guy with two legs."

Jaune looked off to the side "I know but..."

Weiss tiled his face to look at her "But what, what has actually changed Jaune, I know I never gave you a true reason to give a damn about me, my family has done some terrible shit before now, and honestly, up into two days ago I wasn't any better, I honestly thought that dust eaters were the mindless monsters my family made them out to be."

Jaune shook his head "You don't get it Weiss, there used to be tens of thousands of us living in villages and mines in all over Atlas, we had cities of Dust Eaters underground! Now, In barely two generations we are down to less than 500 Dust eaters in Remnant that we know about, my species is dying off." Jaune stared directly at Weiss as he started to find his anger again "Your family's legacy is a mass grave, a marker with my people's name engraved on it!"

Jaune stood up and took a few steps away from the Bar. "What the fuck did our people do you your family to earn that?"

Weiss stood up as well and walked towards staying a couple steps back. "I don't know Jaune"

Jaune said in a tone of barely contained rage and heart break "Then why don't you call up daddy dearest and ask him!"

"Because he wouldn't know either." Weiss said fighting back tears "My dad married into the family when my grandfather was still alive, the same grandfather that commissioned the Watts report... I'm sure that my Grandfather was looking for an excuse back then to have the dust eaters relocated, and hired someone to write a report up to help him justify it."

Jaune stood their silently staring at a wall.

"Jaune, very few people outside of the family knows this... But my grandfather was assassinated by a Dust Eater after the first extermination..." Weiss looked at Jaune "I'm not saying that excuses the exterminations at all, but, my father never cared about the Dust Eaters, he was just in the business of making money and destroying my family's name! My mother on the other hand..."

Jaune looked at Weiss with a look of shock "Your saying, that your mother was doing all this out of _revenge?_ "

Weiss looked up at Jaune, and tried to keep her wavering voice stable "Just like how your dad is cutting a bloody swathe through my family's company, as we speak"

Jaune looked off to the side "My gods..."

Weiss walked up to him and looked at him and spoke, to him "We are both, victims here, Me to a far lesser extent of course." she paused "But in my entire life, I have never known my mother to be happy, she would either drink, verbally abuse us, including my father, and plot the deaths of Dust Eaters, whenever any would show up! Jaune I have no doubt in my mind that it was my mother that arranged for your village to be attacked."

Jaune shook his head "Why tell me this then? Who does it mater which member of your family attacked us!?"

"Because your dad joined the White Fang... Your dad is just repeating, note for note, what my family is doing, and we need to stop this! We need to find a way to end this damn cycle were stuck in, or your people, and my family, are all going to die." Weiss pleased at Jaune.

"Hilarious, coming from someone that less than two days ago was calling my people _'Semi sentient lizards'_ Weiss" Jaune scoffed.

"I was wrong..." Weiss said weakly

Jaune stood their in silence, rubbing his eyes. "Just like that huh?"

Weiss tried to smile at him "Yeah, just like that, I was wrong, I didn't know better. I'm not sure you've noticed, but I'm pretty damn ignorant on a great many things..." Weiss took a step towards "You said Ozpin stopped you from killing me, what did do to stop you?"

Jaune scoffed "Kicked my ass all over a training room..." Jaune then turned to face Weiss "Then told me, that the better way to get revenge for my family would be prove the world wrong about us."

Weiss took another step towards Jaune "Well you proved me wrong, so your off to a decent start right?"

Jaune didn't smile "Maybe..."

Weiss took another step towards Jaune "I can't do this without you, I came to Beacon to escape my name, but..." she paused to find the words "Maybe, if we both try, if we just... I don't know do _something_ _different_ we could change things, we could stop the exterminations, we could save your race, and maybe... just maybe we could redeem my family's name."

"Your not normally this naive Weiss!" Jaune shouted.

Weiss took another step towards Jaune as she saw his features soften. "We don't have to do this Jaune, we don't have fight, you don't have to leave." Weiss was now close enough that she could reach out to him. "Please come back with me."

Just as Jaune was about to say something, a pair of sword swords landed in the ground between them. The pair's eyes shot off to the side, Weiss instantly recognized the girl standing there, Penny stood there watching the pair with a flat unemotional glare.

Penny wore and unreadable face, with a twist of her wrist she recalled the blades to her hands. Weiss looked over as Jaune flicked his wrists deploying his wrist blades "she with you?" He spoke his voice dripping with barely contained anger.

"Penny what the hell are you doing!" Weiss shouted at the Orange haired girl.

"I am happy you were able to talk to Friend Jaune" Penny held her hands out as a series of duplicated swords flew out of a hidden compartment on her back and started to float around her back like wings "I truly am Friend Weiss, however I calculate an eighty five percent chance that Friend Jaune is a Dust Eater."

Weiss shouted at Penny "What are you saying Penny!?"

"I was programmed, in part by the SDC, to hate Dust Eaters with the very core of my being, I am programmed to want nothing more than to see the Dust Eaters rendered extinct friend Weiss." Penny said with out a hint of malice and or hate in her voice.

"It's a damn robot! Atlas sent a damn robot after me?!" Jaune shouted in anger

"My original intent was to seek out the Dust Eater terrorist cell for extermination, but I am mandated to prioritize the safety of the Schnee family and other high priority Atlas personnel, So I choose to ignore the lower priority mandate of exterminating the Dust Eater terror group." Penny said in her normal upbeat tone.

"Please don't do this Penny, their's a better way than this!" Weiss pleaded

"I am sorry friend Weiss, I am unable to disobey my programming." Penny stated back flatly.

Weiss said, clenching her teeth "Your not leaving me a choice here Penny, I don't want to have to fight you!"

Penny said in a flat tone. "Then I will have to fight you both, for if you choose to stand with the Dust Eater, then you are an enemy of Atlas. I am sorry Friend Weiss, but this is goodbye."

Jaune took a step forward as Penny started to slowly approach the pair.

* * *

 **So a few chapters back, I mentioned a twist, and here we are, the twist being in this case, that Penny, the character who in canon frankly saved the team from a certain ass whooping at the hands of the white fang, is now directly in a position to attempt to take down Weiss and Jaune.**

 **If you at all saw this coming, brag about it in the reviews, because this one should have been pretty obvious if you think about it.**

 **So I do kinda want to get on a soapbox for a second and Talk about Penny, and honestly kinda how Rooster Teeth shit the bed with her. I honestly left Volume 3 with the question of "Well what's stopping them from just fixing her, or shoving her brain in a new body?". Using her death for shock value, fell flat for me. Now this might be because I grew up on G1 transformers and Star Trek TNG with the character of Data. The former of which had to create lore in later cartoons and comics to explain why a Transformer suffers Permadeath when they are killed. The later (data) actually had his head cut off, and said head and was left in a cave for centuries (long story), was dusted off and slotted back on his body with no ill effects.**

 **Also, I really think allot of the community just flat forgets that Penny is a robot. Especially the Nuts and Dolts shippers. She is hardware in body, software in mind, a lot of fics I feel, try to make her more than what she is with some nonsense about having a soul transfused into her, and that doesn't work for me, because I feel like that does a disservice to the character. I don't picture her as having an aura, because technology could mimic aura with a force field, Not that ever really saw her take a hit until Pyrrha violently recycled her in V3. she also doesn't have a True Semblance, in my opinion, because she had the technology to ape a semblance. A great quote from Arthur C Clarke is "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". I personally feel like that applies to Penny in this case, and that's how I'm choosing to handle Penny as a character in this Story.**

 **I have other thoughts about this and the next chapter, but i'll save it till the next chapter, until then, see you next time.**


	24. Chapter 24

**This chapter took a bit more work to hammer out than others, I wanted to take the time to publicly answer a couple questions about Dust Eaters that I answered privately to the people asking before we get into it today.**

 **So Ardo-Sama asked if Jaune could eat any kind of dust or if he was restricted to a single type of dust. The short answer is no, all dust eaters are restricted to a single color of dust, which is why I made the requirements for their dust intake comparatively low. I also explained that, how before a certain age, typically 2 or 3, a dust eater is effectively colorless, and as their scales come around the second or third year of life they actually will eat dust for the first time, at that time they basically choose the color of dust they eat, and that gives them a color/element and that locks them in for the rest of their lives.**

 **Reader Jack Lycan asked if it was possible for human's and Faunas to have children with a Dust Eater, and I think about this one, but honestly, if I wanted to stay consistent with the biological rules of Rwby then if comes to Faunas and Humans mating, then it is possible for a Dust Eater and a Human to have kids. That doesn't mean it's going to be a particularly easy process for non dust eater mothers in any rate. Because a Dust eater is basically born with horns, one would assume that the non dust eater mother would absolutely need to deliver via C-Section. It's also not uncommon for dust eaters to be born as twins. Also, us an infant Dust eater, while not dependent on Dust, will require the trace amounts of dust produced by their mothers milk to sort of "Activate" their Dust Stomachs as an infant.**

 **I have more to say, but I'll save it for the end.**

* * *

Penny was slowly walking towards Weiss and Jaune, the pair realized they had maybe seconds before they would be attacked by the murderous android. Jaune signaled to Weiss to run for the counter to retrieve her weapon before battle had begin.

Weiss made a break for the counter as Jaune rushed the android to act as a distraction, Penny was able to calculate the odd's of this action and devoted a small number of the blades she had floating around her to fly at Weiss to try and take her down early, The three short swords struck mere milliseconds behind Weiss as she darted for the counter.

Jaune went in for a low spinning slash with both blades before opening up a flurry of straight strikes, He was disappointed to see Penny deflect the strikes one after another with the floating blades without ever even lifting her own arms to defend her self.

"Weiss this isn't working! We need a new plan!" Jaune shouted as he was forced into a defensive retreat putting his full effort into parrying the flying blades the were striking randomly at him from various directions.

Weiss meanwhile made it to her weapon and snatched it up as another blade almost impaled her hand to the counter, she quickly turned towards Penny and started to empty the magazine at her only for her to start parrying the rounds out of the air. "Jaune, yeah this is not working either!"

Jaune had managed to gain a decent amount of distance from Penny when her attacks stopped and Penny recalled the swords back to herself. Jaune tried to count the number of swords she had floating about her with an ending total of between 14 and 18 swords.

"Weiss, hang back i'm going to run distraction look for openings then hit her with your most powerful dust attacks!" Jaune said as he started to close the gap again.

Penny responded by redirecting her blades to link up to each forming a pair of bladed whips, she lashed out at the approaching with a combo of sweeping arcs and vertical straight strikes at him forcing Jaune to keep a distance from her lest her risk a quick end to himself.

Jaune ducked a one sweeping whip attack, leaped over another sweeping attack, and performed a side roll against a third vertical strike. "Hurry up Weiss I can't do this all day!"

Weiss off to the side charged up a Gylph and used it to form a circle of ice lances that she directed with her rapier one by one to launch themselves at Penny.

Penny for the first time in the battle was forced to cease her assault to defend, calling her blades back to her to form wings, she made a series of wide slashes with her arms as the blades closely mimic'd her actions slicing the lances apart one by one.

Jaune knew he had to act and rushed readying a flechete shot to blast Penny with. as the last spear was sliced in half Jaune pressed one of his Katar's to the side of Penny and fired the shot. The force of the blast pushed Jaune back several feet and kicked up a considerable amount of dust.

Jaune watched the dust cloud closely He heard Weiss run up next to him saying "I think we got her"

As the dust cleared, they both could see Penny standing straight up, with part of her dress on tatters, for the first time in the fight, her facial expression turned into a grin "Not bad friend Jaune, I won't hold back against you now!" Penny thrusted both hands forward as all of her swords flew from her at the pair.

Weiss summoned a glyph in front of them to shield them, only to see the blades redirect themselves to go around it!

"Dodge!" screamed Weiss as she start bounding around to throw off the aim and striking back blades that aimed at her with her rapier

Jaune's evasion was far more clumsy than his agile partner with harder parries being used to slap the blades away until to became to much and he was forced to throw himself off to the side to prevent himself from being impaled by Penny's swords.

Penny called her swords back to her, ordering most of them to either latch behind her back or attach to her legs, energy started to emit from the blades lifting her up, 6 of them attached to her arms, 3 each, forming the appearance of arm cannons.

"Energy canon configuration activated" Penny stated before pointed her arms at Jaune and started to fire a pair of massive beams at the still standing huntsmen. with a mere second to spare a powerful glyph formed in front of him at a slight angle, rather than try to block the strike, the Glyph redirected the blasts up and over him.

Weiss shouted "Jaune, why the hell are you holding back!" before she was forced into a defensive roll herself as a beam scorched the earth as it passed her. "Use your full power on her or were both dead!"

Jaune glanced between Penny and Weiss, Penny turned her attention back to Jaune and fired a beam at him forcing him into a defensive roll. "Why am I holding back?" Jaune thought out loud as he Penny kept firing Beams of hot searing death at the direction of the pair.

Jaune started to charge at Penny in the hopes that he could close the gap and d _o_ _something_ to hurt the android that was trying to end the pair of them, Penny then fired a charge blast at the ground in front of him sending him flying back into a wall hard.

"Jaune!" Weiss shouted before a similar blast knocked her off her feat and into the bar.

Weiss groaned as Penny start to aim both arms at the downed girl.

"Weiss No!" Jaune shouted as he forced himself to his feet. time seemed to slow as he watched energy build up in both of the androids arms, he knew that if he allowed her to fire, Weiss wouldn't be able to withstand it!

He watched Weiss futility throw up a Glyph in front of her, he saw the helplessness in his partner eyes as he closed his distance. He felt his body begin to contort into it's true form as he rushed in to save his partner. "I won't let you hurt her!"

Jaune leaped into the air as his horns started to form over his head, as the Dust eater's glow shined in his eyes, as the fur on his arms and legs grew out, with a violent roar he practically flew at Penny and slammed his fist into her back sending her flying into the wall behind the bar just as the beams fired missing Weiss by scant inches.

Weiss would admit, her first look at Jaune in his true Dust Eater form was a frightening one, his soft blue eyes were replaced by glowing yellow eyes. a pair of long horns grew out of his forehead and followed his hair line up, over and to the back of his head hugging his scalp. The yellow scales growing down his arms ended in clawed fingers, she looked down and saw scales on his legs through the tears in his pants legs.

Weiss was forced out of her gawking as Jaune reached down, grabbed her and leaped back away to the bar just as it exploded outwards as Penny freed herself from the wall.

"I see you finally unleashed your full potential Friend Jaune, I was worried you were planing on making this battle boring for me" Penny said in her normal almost friendly tone as her blades quickly hacked the bar apart in a barely concealed anger.

"I'm not your friend bitch!" Jaune shouted in reply as he charged in at Penny to try and take her down with his claws tried to feint with a series of knife hand jabs trying to distract her as he took a stance for a wide right hook. Jaune would be disappointed for her to casually sway everything he would toss at her aside and then force him into a succession in short side stepping dodges as she started to swing in long unpredictable arcs with her hands causing her floating blades to mimics her strikes, a single successful hit would slash him a half dozen times in quick succession.

"You are still lacking in ability to be considered a true threat to me Friend Jaune I will mak-" Penny's head turned as a fireball struck her in the back distracting her for a moment. Jaune charged up his own electricity and unleashed an arcing stream of electric fury into Penny's body.

Penny's rebuttal was swift closing the gap on Jaune in a moment and stabbing him in the side with a blade causing him to shout out in agony "Friend Jaune, my creators built me to battle Dust Eaters, did you not imagine they would have made my skin able to withstand dust based energy attacks?"

Jaune through pained growls, grabbed penny by the neck forcing her back and head butted her causing to release the grip on the sword sticking out of his side, once he had the distance to do so he started to punch the Android in the head as hard as he could to force her back off of him.

As he reared back for a final strike he noticed a glyph form around his hand and heard Weiss shout "IMPACT" before Jaune slugged the android sending her flying into a wall.

"Crap..." Jaune muttered as he reached to his side and pulled the blade out with a pained shout. Weiss was next to him in a second having heated her blade with fire dust. "Hold still Jaune!"

As penny started to pull herself out of the wall, Jaune let out a pained shout as Weiss put the headed blade against Jaune in an effort to cauterize his wound. Weiss commented "I think we need to plan a bit more to win this one!"

Jaune dug his claws into the ground and forced himself to his feet "Yeah.." He groaned as he stood up picking up the short sword that was at one point sticking out of him "Hey wait a sec..." Jaune said as he noticed the broken cable extending from the hilt of the blade "The swords are connected to her by cables?"

"They must be cloaked somehow, that's why we couldn't see them!" Weiss stated as she his her fist into her open palm "Jaune we can use that to our advantage right?"

Jaune's mind went into overdrive "One way to find out, run support, I'll take the fight to her!"

Penny walked towards the pair with her swords floating around her aimed straight at the pair. Weiss backed off while Jaune stood up and walked forward trying to ignore the pain in his right side. Penny ordered her blades to strike forward in mass at Jaune.

Jaune did his best to evade the blades racing at him, either side hoping to evade, or deflecting them by shooting lightning to knock them off course. When the last blade came at him he side leaned to try and get around the blade. around it reaching into the air behind the blade to try and grab the unseen cable guiding it.

His hand grabbed onto it. "GOTCHA!" He said as he snapped the cable like a whip causing Penny to become unbalanced. Jaune wrapped the cable around his arm to keep a grip on it and started to pull on it.

"Weiss, Lower her Gravity, I got a plan!" Jaune shouted to Weiss. Weiss smiled and cast a glyph on the back of Penny that reduced her local gravity. Once Jaune had pulled the cable back to the point where he could do what he wanted to do, he started to spin with his full strength forcing penny off her feat as he spun her in a tight circle around him.

"Friend Jaune, I don't know what your attempting to do, but it will fail!" Penny screamed as she held on to her end of the cable.

Once Jaune had got thier revolutions up to a sufficient speed, had started to swing her over head like one would swing a ball and chain. "Come on, I need this faster..." He said as he struggled to get the Android up to a desired speed "Weiss, toss up a couple speed glyphs!"

Weiss obliged Jaune, tossing up gylphs designed to amplify penny's speed. pretty soon he had penny spinning at a rapid speed around him. "Put up a line of speed Gylphs aimed at the wall!"

Once again, Weiss obligated creating a line of 6 speed gylphs in front of the wall as Jaune released the cable propelling her at the wall hitting each glyph. Penny hit the wall with an enormous crash kicking up clouds of dust in and derbies that shot past the pair of Hunters.

"How much speed do you think we generated!" Jaune shouted covering his eyes from the dust blowing at them

"I'm guessing at least three hundred miles per hour, we can't let up though!" Weiss reported

Sure enough as the dust cleared as penny, much of her skin covering torn away and one arm hanging limp, started to pull herself out of the wall.

Weiss twirled her blade and spun as she waved a large glyph in front of her before slamming her hand into it, a massive single Ice lance shot out of it into the guts of Penny pinning her into the wall.

"Jaune, shock the ice! the water should conduct your electricity!" Weiss shouted

Jaune put both hands in front of him as he channeled his electric power into his fore arms and projected a powerful focused channeled stream of lightning into the ice.

Penny's metallic body seized up as the electricity started to fry even her well constructed and shielded electronics. By the time the ice shattered and Jaune's power gave out, it was clear that Penny's frame couldn't withstand any more punishment.

Penny's body hobbled and shakes violently as she stumbled forward, Jaune still holding the sword he pulled out of his side rushed towards penny to finish the android off. The android held up a single arm, incapable of facial expression and stated "P-Please I-I Don't want to Di-"

Penny never finished her sentence as Jaune forced the sword into the android's chest cavity and into the small dust reactor keeping the android alive with a furious roar.

The lights went out of Penny's eyes as the android slumped over dead. Weiss looked to the side saddened that she was forced to kill the young android. Jaune simply clutched his side and stared down at the Atlas created killer with contempt.

As Jaune turned backed to Weiss, his vision blurred and, out of trained reflex, he shifted his body back into it's disguised state as he stumbled forward towards Weiss, Weiss who was also similarly exhausted used her body yo prop Jaune up with her body while also using him to stand.

"I think we over did it" Weiss said out loud.

* * *

Weiss woke up around six pm, she didn't recall falling asleep in the first place but there she is. She looked around and figured quickly she was sitting on the ground in an alley way somewhere in vale, she felt warm on her side where she was leaning against Jaune who was looking out into the distance quietly chomping down on a Dust Crystal.

"How long was I asleep?" Weiss asked groggily.

"Uh... I'd say about two, maybe two and a half hours?" Jaune said not looking at her.

"I don't remembering passing out" Weiss said as she tried to sit up.

"Aura exhaustion I'd say, we both over did it. I've been struggling to keep my eyes open for the last hour" Jaune said as he finished the dust rock he was eating.

Weiss rubbed her forehead "I don't feel too great to be honest..."

Jaune responded by setting a bag in front of her "Well eat up, I grabbed us food from the McBurnies down the street"

Weiss opened the bag and mentally scoffed at the food. but that didn't stop her from pulling out the burger and take a bite out of it.

"I figured that knowing you, you probably haven't eaten anything since breakfast, if you even managed that." Jaune said as he took a long swig of a drink he had sitting next to him

Weiss and Jaune say in silence eating for a few moments. "Oh.. Uh I never apologized for blowing up your old weapon." Jaune said a few quiet moments later he said "I uh... Well I was just thinking about it."

Weiss was silent for a second while she chewed her food. "I knew your explanation seemed unlikely." She said with a soft giggle. "Don't worry about it, I'm sure you had a good reason to do so, and well, I like my new weapon more if I had to be honest."

They both chuckled for a few moments before Weiss spoke up "Hey, if were being honest with each other... I missed you last night, I don't know why, but for some reason waking up and not seeing you there hurt, probably more than anything else in my life."

Jaune looked off to the side "Sorry..."

Weiss rested her head against him "Don't do it again okay?"

Jaune smiled softly at Weiss "I'll think it over."

Just as Weiss was starting to enjoy the moment, her Scroll started to ring. she picked her scroll up and answered "Ruby? What's up?"

 **Well sorry to Ardo-Sama again who suggested that Jaune could shock Penny back to good, but that's clearly not how it panned out here, does this mean that Penny is completely gone from this story. That being said, before I published this chapter, I sort of steeled myself for possible backlash for basically killing a fan favorite character, especially at the hands of the hero's. I even wrote down the number of people following this story, as I know this could potentially turn some people off from the story.**

 **Penny, as portrayed was not "evil" but rather she was programmed to strictly follow the laws of Atlas. She saw Jaune as a thing that the Laws of Atlas declared a thing to exterminate, and saw Weiss as someone who was breaking said laws and was attacking her for enforcing the laws of Atlas. In a sort of D &D Alignment Terms, she was at best Lawful neutral. **

**I guess it was a bit of a "Take That" on my part against Fan fics that write stories of how a "better" Jaune could keep certain people (Namely Pyrrha) from dying because their so much "better" than the Canon version of the character. In this case, Jaune is stronger, at least compared to the Jaune of Volume 1, but I wouldn't say he's better than the canon version. Lets face facts, DE!Jaune is a bit of an asshole, and ultimately, the butterfly effect rears it's ugly head. DE!Jaune didn't prevent Penny's death, in this case he caused it. So It's really only a mater of time to see, what else this change causes.**


	25. Chapter 25

**So it's been a while, I apologize for that. I know of course that having a week gap between chapters is not the end of the world when some fics goes weeks to months between updates, but it's still aggravating to me. This chapter took a bit to get down on paper mostly due to me being busy at work and home in that lovely clusterfuck of a time between thanksgiving and Christmas that happens every year at my work.**

 **Hopefully there won't be a major gap between this chapter and the next, this chapter did have a couple small writing challenges, mostly writing Blake's combat style since her weapon is a real beast to wrap my head around, and the fact that if I wrote out every way a White Fang mook for trashed this chapter would hit about eight thousand plus words. It was a learning experience to say the least, and I hope you all enjoy, Till next chapter.**

* * *

At Seven pm that same day Ruby stared down the barrel of Crescent Rose as she watched White fang workers unload an airship of supplies that had the mark of the Schnee Dust company, Blake was down their somewhere performing forward recon and getting head counts, Sun and Yang were waiting for the word to strike.

Weiss was speaking to Ruby through her earpiece "Ruby, I want to make sure i'm clear on what your doing down there, You roped half of my team, plus a random faunas your sister, and I quote 'Adopted', and your currently staking out a white fang operation that, as a mater of record, _slaughtered dozens_ of my families friends and workers?"

Ruby said softly as she scanned the field "That sounds about right yeah."

"Are you fucking with me right now?" Weiss said back her scroll from elsewhere.

Ruby smiled warmly when she heard Jaune who was also on the call speaking up "Actually according to half the school, I'm the one doing that."

"Not helping Jaune!" Ruby heard a pause as she lined up one what looked like a sniper scanning in her direction, she skulked out of sight momentarily to avoid being seen, Weiss was still talking "... what is the other half saying?"

"Eh, not really the time to be honest." She heard Jaune's voice speak "Ruby i'm going start making my way there but it's going to take time, please for the love of the gods don't do anything stu-"

It was at this time the phone call cut off unexpectedly and she saw a glint of light aimed at her, she quickly alerted the team "The sniper saw me, GO GO GO!" Ruby took aim and fired a rubber round at the Guard to disable him, but it was to late, sirens began to cry out out alerting the workers and fighters at the docks.

* * *

Yang and Sun charged in directly into the Fray as a dozen armed White fang guards closed the distance to attack, Sun took out the first twirling his staff and firing off Tazer rounds from both ends. and then a second twirling the staff down to disarm a guard then knocking him out by twirling the staff behind his head and striking the guard in the temple.

Where Sun fought with Finesse and misdirection Yang was all brute force, a While fang guard tried to hack her head off swinging his sword like a baseball bat only for yang to slap the clumsy strike away and take the guard down with a pair of brutal kidney strikes. as the guard dropped she looked at sun and said with a smile "He'll remember me tomorrow when he goes to take a leak."

"Charming..." Sun said looking at her with a slightly disturbed look, without looking he fired his gun staff at another Thug dropping him with a shocked whimper."

* * *

Blake skulked through the shadows as the fighting was going on, in an effort to fall back and support the rest of the team, when she saw a pair of while fang thugs, she connected her weapon to it's ribbon shifted it into it's scythe form, holding the sheath blade in her offhand, and hurled the sickle part of it around the legs of the rear thug tripping him up.

The second guard rushed Blake take wild but trained swings at Blake only for the black haired girl to easily block the strikes with her sheath held in a southpaw stance, she flicked her wrist to pull the Sickle portion of her weapon back to her as she rolled around a thrust from the thug, and used the momentum of her returning weapon, and a flick of her wrist to wrap the weapon's cloth around the face of the thug she engaged as a distraction.

She quickly struck the thug in the back of his neck with her weapons hilt knocking him out as the second thug got back to his feet. she threw the sheath portion at the second target as she unwrapped her sickle gun from around the now unconscious thug with a simple wrist motion. Although the thug was able to deflect the thrown hilt, it proved to be futile as Blake simply shot the thug in the chest with her weapon in gun mode.

Satisfied, she quickly collected her hilt and skulked off to catch up to the rest of the team.

* * *

It didn't take long for the entire group to rally in the center of the fight, Ruby and were holding off the encroaching White fang force with their longer reaching ranged weapons, Yang and Blake took turns taking out those that closed the gap on them, the running fight became a slog that eventually wore the 4 student team down.

Ruby shouted to her team "Slow down and conserve your strength, let them think that were starting to tire out!" as she kept sniping at the targets that would stick their heads out of cover.

The others were happy to oblige her as they knew they couldn't keep their pace all night.

That's when Roman Torchwick took to the field from the other side of the field. "Listen up, I want half of you to pull back and finish loading the transports before the law gets here, the rest of us will charge the Huntsmen and wipe them out with numbers!"

Ruby quietly Gritted her teeth "I fought him before, do not underestimate him, let them come to us and we'll fight them back!"

"Alright sis, you aim, we shoot okay?" Yang smirked at her sister in an effort to calm Ruby's rattled nerves.

It didn't take long for the White fang to push at the Huntsmen's position, Ruby and Sun took several down as they rushed the small group. After that battle had been joined.

Ruby found herself in a 6 on one, she took out the first to charge her by hooking there legs with her scythe to flip them up before she blew the thug away from her with a close range shot from behind the back. She then slipped into a pattern of blocking and dodging sword swings and gun fire in a flurry of red petals, when one Thug thrusted his blade at her, she pulled back and rolled around Sun who clobbered the thug with a flurry of strikes from his spinning nunchucks. while ruby started to cover his flank with well aimed sniper strikes.

Elsewhere Blake and Yang got into a comfortable pattern of Blake tripping up or unbalancing thugs for Yang to lay them out with her insanely strong shotgun punches. As yang was about to get picked off by a riffle toting thug, she tugged on the fabric ribbon in her hand and whipped it around helping Blake propel herself at the gun toting thug foe and drop kick that laid them out.

* * *

The fighting went on for several minutes, Ruby's team was holding the White fang forces off, that is when Torchwick took to the field, He came across Sun first, Sun attempted to drop Torchwick with a flurry of strikes from his Nunchucks but Torchwick with little effort managed to deflect the entire chain of strikes with his cane "Run along Ape!" Shouted Torchwick as he aimed and shot the ground below Suns feet blasting him off his feet with a small concussive explosion.

Ruby and Yang Attacked from the flanks at torch wick, Yang took the lead leading with a leaping ace kick that Torchwick sidestepped, Torchwick then ducked as Ruby's scythe almost took his head off with a wide controlled swing, Torchwick hooked Ruby's lead leg and pulled throwing the Red Reaper to the ground then clocked yang in the temple with the other-side of the cane before striking her with a gut kick to push her back and give him some room to breathe.

"Really your all just a bunch of amateurs if this is all you can do!" Torchwick scoffed twirling his cane.

Torchwick staggered forward as rubber shots pelted him in the back from the enemy he didn't see, Blake had unloaded her weapon at Torchwick catching him flat footed, after the first few shots struck home he started to deflect rounds away with his tablet "Well well, I'm glad Adam didn't show up, he might get all misty from seeing his ex again after so long!"

Blake screamed in anger at hearing his Adam's name "Shut up!" as she fired down range until her weapon started to click, Seeing an opening Torchwick leveled his cane gun and got ready to fire, he was only stopped when Yang sucker punched Torchwick in the face.

Torchwick stumbled back rubbing his Jaw "That was dirty! I approve" before shooting Yang in the stomach with the round he was aiming at Blade, Yang fell back holding her stomach, thankful her aura stopped most of the force of the shot.

Torchwick leveled his cane gun at Yang ready to fire a second time "Tough luck kid, I really don't enjoy having to kill kids like this, but your really not giving me a choice"

The last thing Torchwick would hear before he heard the sounds of a large caliber round being chambered and fired would be the voice of Ruby Rose saying "Let me give you a way out then!"

The heavy rubber round slammed into torchwick's side sending him flying back. He landed clutching his side with a couple broken ribs "Ugh.. Okay.. Well, Good rebuttal, I'll give you that Red, but I wasn't here to finish the fight, I was just keeping the seat warm for the main event."

Ruby dashed over to Torchwick and leveled her rifle at his head "Main event? Your forces are routing, and your on your back, what is this so called main event your talking about?"

"Well Red, I'm glad you asked" Torchlight hit a button on the scroll he had been palming "Julius my good friend, can you wrap this up for us?"

Ruby's eyes shot wide thinking _'Oh crap, he doesn't mean-'_

Ruby didn't get a chance to finish the question as the battle was suddenly sent to a crashing halt as a powerful gust of went Blew off her feat and back to the rest of the team she was with.

The tall man with unnaturally white hair, horns, and obvious white scales running down his arms stepped into view as wisps of air fluttered around him, Torchwick spoke as if to introduce the newcomer "Oh yes, you see, a good poker player, never shows his hand until he's ready to collect, and I hid on hell of a ace under my sleeve."

"Are you seriously telling me that your great white fang force is getting crushed by _children_ Torchwick? Julius scoffed

"Just wipe them out so we can finish evacuating in peace if you don't mind?" Torchwick said with irritation in his voice "Especially red over there, we have h _istory_."

"So be it..." Julius said as he started a slow methodical march towards Ruby and company.

Yang shouted "Pour it on!" Before she started firing her shotgun gauntlets at the White dust eater, Blake and Sun quickly joined and fired a torrent of rounds at Julius.

Except nothing was hitting him, he simply raised a hand and encircled himself in a powerful cyclone of wind that was pushing the rubber rounds off course and off to the side. "Be serious now children, is this all you can bring to the table?"

Once the guns went dry, Julius started to make his move, Sun was the first to find himself in direct engagement with the Dust Eater, Sun called forth a pair of his duplicates and all three of them tried to attack him, the duplicates were taken out almost instantly as Julius dropped one with a blast from his Shotgun Tonfa, and the second went down quickly with a flick of his wrist as white dust formed a razor sharp blade of wind and sliced the second copy in half.

As far a Sun was concerned they did their Job and shifting his nunchucks to dual fighting sticks, attempted to take Julius down by striking both sides of his head to discombobulate the dust Eater.

Julius responded by flicking two fingers up causing a powerful vertical updraft of wind to rip the weapons out of Sun's hands as he flipped the tonfa in his hand and performed a single handed golf swing catching Sun in the face with the short handle of his weapon. Sun fell back grabbing his face no doubt suffering a minor skull fracture.

Julius never stopped his slow walk at the team. "You children think that just because you have your fancy looking weapons, and your aura awakened, that it will be enough to win any battle you come across?"

Blake charge from the flank, her weapon's blade pointed at Julius ready to stab him in the side, she didn't care who this Dust Eater was, she had a team to protect! Julius simply flipped the Tonfa around so it pointed at Blake and fired a round from his Shotgun at her, Blake didn't have the time to evade and went down screaming and holding her chest.

"Be happy I'm using rock salt rounds in my weapon tonight, Despite what Torchwick said, I'm not going to kill any of you yet!" Julius shouted as he charged his open hand full of dust and threw a powerful sphere of air at the remaining huntsmen. The sphere struck Ruby in the chest and knocked her down as the wind was forced out of her lungs leaving her gasping as her lungs struggled to get air in her lungs.

Yang undeterred charged Julius with a burning aura and threw her fastest combo's at Julius who casually blocked every strike she aimed at him with "You have some potential girl, but your about 25 years to early to even keep up with me." Julius caught her fist and pushed back throwing her off balance before he leveled her with a massive gut kick, followed by a brutal choke slam. After that Yang could only push up to her knee's from the pain that was in her body.

"White fang soldiers, Line them up, It's time we sent Beacon an warning!" Julius shouted out loud! calling a few White fang thugs to his position.

* * *

Ruby looks on as the teams weapons were tossed into a pile off to the side the 4 of them were lined up in a row on their knee's with hands tied behind their backs as the Dust Eater watched the last of the transports take off "Well that's that, looks like the rest of us can leave in a moment, but we have one small mater to attend to" Julius turns to face the four huntsmen. "Teams typically have a leader which one of you would that be?" Julius stared the group for a moment as they all kept up. "Well speak up or I'm going to have to shoot the lot of you!"

Ruby clinched her fists and spoke up "I am!"

Julius smiled and walked over to her weapon in hand. He stared her down for a moment ignoring the swears and protests of the yang off to the side, he took a knee in front of her ans smiled "Are you now? You don't look much older than 15 or 16 i'd say." Julius tilted ruby's head from side to side. "Well, you sure do have the _look_ of a leader, hell maybe even an _alright_ leader, but I wonder if you have what it takes to be a _good_ leader."

Julius stood up and unloaded all of the rock salt shells from his weapon, and held up for all to see, a single slug round that he loaded into his weapon "You see, their is one leader I respect, the first King of Vale, the one that led vale to win the great war, do you want to know why I respect him"

"I don't give damn what you think you bastard!" Yang shouted out.

Julius ignored the blonde and kept speaking as he knelled back in front of Ruby "You see the king, well he knew that you can't win a war without sacrifice, the bastard would order entire companies of his into suicide charges, knowing they would be cut down. The king did this, because he knew, he'd loose a hundred men, but they would kill 3 times their number, and save a thousand in the process."

Julius smirked and tapped Ruby on the forehead. "Your going to get a lesson in true leadership here, your going to choose one of the member's of your team, and i'm going to kill them. After that, we leave the rest of you alive to walk away."

Julius stood up and towered over Ruby "So little girl, who's it going to be?"


	26. Chapter 26

**So going to be real honest, I didn't think V1 would take this many chapters to the end of. I think I mentioned something about a dozen chapters or so back that I'd being looking at V3 by the early 30's. I honestly would have dropped this fic like a sack of potato's probably 20 chapters or more ago if it wasn't for the support I get on here, I mean hell, I know a big part of why I'm still writing, some nights staying up to almost 1am to put the final touches on a chapter to make it just right, is because I know their's allot of people in this community who seems to be enjoying it. BabisV asked in the reviews for the last chapter if I write professionally, and honestly, unless you consider writing down automotive crash reports for insurance is me writing "Professionally" then sure why not, but like I said in chapter 1, this is a hobby I only picked up a couple months ago now.**

 **I won't be jumping into the Volume 2 story lines quite yet, I have a few side story chapters I want to knock out first, also the r/Ruby Subreddit has me roped into co writing a Christmas special fic with something like 13 other writers, so that should be fun to try out. Amusing we don't all go mental and kill each other first. In any rate, I'll see you all next chapter!**

* * *

Ruby stared up in horror at the Dust eater, seconds ago she was just told to choose who would be killed so the rest of them could live. Ruby knew she couldn't choose anyone there to die for her, so she decided on the only choice she could make.

"Actually kid, let me add an extra rule to this" The White Dust Eater Julius stated. "If you choose yourself, were going to kill the three of them, and you can walk home alone." Ruby could hear the White Fang thugs around here chuckle as Ruby's eyes went wide with terror.

Julius started to pace around "Of course take your time, were not in any real rush here, our objectives are complete, and any authorities that show up here will be put down just as easily as you were."

Ruby looked side to side at the others, Sun was looking down at the floor with his eyes closed, either to make peace with things, or to try and will the situation to go away.

Blake's eyes were fixed on the Dust Eater, Ruby wasn't sure as to what to make of it, but there it was. When Ruby's eyes met with Yang's, the older sister only nodded at Ruby and mouthed "pick me."

Ruby's eyes shot away from Yang pretty quickly after that, she looked at Julius and spoke "Is there any other way we could negotiate my team's release without bloodshed?"

"Your not in the position to negotiate for anything little girl" Julius stated out loud.

"Maybe your wrong, your a Dust Eater, and I assume your working with the White Fang because of what happened to your village am I wrong?" Ruby spoke up. "Surely we would be more useful as hostages to negotiate for Dust or Supplies from the school am I right?"

"Ruby, no offense but how is that going to be better?" Yang shouted at Ruby.

"Because we would all live, we'd be humiliated, but that's already happened, but all of us would walk away!" Ruby shouted back.

Julius Laughed "Oh you got spunk kiddo, you'd rather be taken prisoner and be subjected to, well quite frankly any numbers of _horrors_ that the White fang would inflict on you than allow a teammate to die?"

"I would rather have some hope, than none!" Ruby replied in anger to the Dust Eater.

Julius lost his smile and spoke in a somber tone "Kid, what some of the white fang thugs that I've met would do to a young thing like you, well hope dies whimpering in the face of that kind of hell." Julius paused "Quite frankly, I'm not enough of a bastard to allow that, so hurry up and make a choice kiddo, time's ticking."

Ruby closed her eyes, and weighed her options, Yang was her sister, she couldn't do it! Blake was part of Jaune's team, and she would never forgive herself even if Jaune ever did.

Sun was dragged along by them, he didn't deserve to die like this, he was right out.

She couldn't make the choice, she could choose someone to die so she could live, she just couldn't!

"I can't do it, I can't choose, I supposed i'm not a good leader after all" Ruby stared at the Dust eater as tears started to fall from her eyes "I'm just a student, who was out looking for a friend, and bit off more than she could chew. I can't make the choice..."

Julius stepped in front of Ruby, and pointed the barrel at her head. "Damn shame kid, though I got to admire that kind of loyalty. Damn shame it won't save your life kid." Julius leveled the gun at Ruby and spoke "Any last words?"

"Just, let the rest of my team go..." Ruby said looking down

"No promises kid..." Julius leveled the Weapon at Ruby's head, and a sound like the heavens themselves cracking was let out.

* * *

Julius staggered back holding his arm, as a shocking pain raced through it. he looked behind the girls he was about to shoot to see a Yellow dust eater in a hood walking towards them with his entire body crackling on fury and thunder. With a booming roar of voice, the young Dust Eater shouted "Get the fuck away from my team you son of a bitch!"

The girls looked back at the familiar voice as the Dust eater pulled his hood back, Yellow eyes shined out as Jaune walked towards the group weapons at the ready. Julius shook off the numbness in his arm and regarded the approaching boy "Son..."

Jaune regarded his father in the same way, his voice full of barely contained rage. "Father..."

"I thought I told you to meet me at Juniors later." Julius spat out

"You did, I didn't listen.. Now back off my team!" Jaune shouted back as he approached, sparks of dust electricity emanating from his body.

"You don't get it do you, your team attacked us, they injured quite a few White fang soldiers, and then they lost the battle, if I let them go, I would be be a traitor to my own cause!" Julius shouted in anger.

Jaune clinched his fist and stared down his father "Since when did avenging out people involving murdering children, god dammit there the same age as Rose was!"

"You know, I was hoping, that with everything that had gone down, we'd see to eye to eye on this, that we could stand together as father and son, but it seems you are more interested in betraying your own race these days!" Julius shouted back.

"I'm the traitor? Did you think for a damn second that slaughtering a student from Beacon wouldn't have repercussions? Or are you trying to get Vale to pass an extermination law on us?! Are you so blind now with rage that you forgot who the enemy was?" Jaune shouted waving his arms and clinching his fists.

"My Enemy is anyone who would see our kind wiped out. If you aim to stand with them, then i'm sorry for what's going to happen Jaune" Julius said taking a hard brawler stance.

"Last chance, let me take them back to Beacon, no one needs to die tonight..." Jaune pleaded to his father.

Julius's eyed turned to the crimson stain on his pants and shirt "Your wounded, I'd bet your tired, and in pain, your not at 100%, you can't beat me in this state. Cut your losses boy!"

Jaune flicked his wrists and deployed his blades "Either way, I lost my father, I suppose I had best make something of it."

Julius's windy aura flared "So be it..."

Both father and son took almost matching brawling stances, standing apart from each other and readied to charge each other in what would be a painful and likely lethal battle for each other, both of them stood silent as they both visualized the fight, paths the battle could take to win, paths that would lead to defeat, paths that would leave them both bleeding on the ground fatally injured.

Almost as if by driven by fate, both fighters charged each other at top speed, time seemed to slow, Ruby stared on in horror, Sun and Blake couldn't watch, Yang shouted something but no one was listening to her.

Both fighters closed in on each other, Julius remembered all the times he and Jaune would spar in the back yard, he remembered the day he helped Jaune forge his weapons, he remembered the day Jaune left for Beacon.

Jaune recalled family dinners, nights out with his dad. Listening to his and his oldest sisters stories of great hunts, he remembered the good times.

Father and Son are inches away from each other, both raise their fists to strike, both commit to the battle at hand, both are about to go for early disabling attacks.

Both are interrupted as their scrolls go off at the same time weapons mere millimeters from the other. both stared each other in the eyes as the Scrolls continued to ring, Julius spoke first "fine, we both take 10 steps back then answer our scrolls."

* * *

Ruby looked on with a sense of relief, the last thing she wanted was for Jaune and his father to fight to the death over them. She watched as both Dust Eaters stepped back and pulled out scrolls as the confused white fang Thugs looked at each other waiting for orders.

"Sis? What's going on, I didn't expect you to be in Vale... Slow down I can't hear-" Jaune went silent and got a shocked look on his face for a few seconds before he covered his mouth

Julius "Hector, slow down your not making sense... What happened?" Julius was silent and stoically stared off into space as he listened to what the man on the other side of the call said

Jaune rubbed tears from his eyes as he spoke "I see Bianca... thank you for letting me know okay?" Jaune paused and spoke again "N-No I haven't seen dad yet but i'll let him know when I talk to him again..."

Julius was having a similar conversation "I will inform Jaune when I see him Hector, Thank you for letting me know."

Both dust eaters hang up their phones and stand in silence.

Julius spoke first "Mina..."

Jaune Spoke again looking off into space "Mom..." Jaune walked over to his father "She's awake..."

Julius turned and put a hand on his shoulder and walked past him "Pack it in White fang, were done here... Cut the Huntsmen loose." Some of the white fang solders protested loudly that they were just letting the kids go unharmed.

Jaune walked over and started to untie Ruby first, ruby looked at Jaune and said "What's going on?"

"We got lucky is what happened, lets get us out of here before Dad changes his mind." Jaune said still softly crying in joy.

"Jaune..." Julius said with his back turned "This is a one time deal, you keep those kids out of our affairs."

"Right well, if their is a next time, I'll be leading them, and we'll win against you." Jaune said back no looking at his father.

"Let us both hope then that next time never comes..." Julius said "Oh, and keep and eye on red over there, she's spirited."

Jaune let out a chuckle as he helped Ruby up and then went to start cutting the others loose "I don't care what you do to Atlas dad, just please for the gods sake, don't drag Vale into this. They didn't do anything to us to deserve it."

Julius walked away saying "No promises Jaune... No Promises." The Huntsmen spared no time before they pulled back from the area to lick their wounds.

* * *

At eight Pm, Jaune and company, all nursing concealed injuries were almost back to the bullhead station to return to Beacon. the mood was somber as this was the first real defeat the team had sustained. Jaune had long since resumed his normal disguised state and walked with Ruby as Weiss and the others walked ahead. Jaune had needed to talk to her, but was struggling with the words.

"I shouldn't have left..." Jaune said out loud.

"I-I shouldn't have led them into that fight" Ruby said back

"That fight never would have happened if I had just stayed at Beacon and trusted my team. You did the best you could with a bad hand Ruby." Jaune said putting an arm around ruby and pulling her into a hug.

"How are you feeling?" Ruby asked noticing Jaune clutching his side still

"I'll live... Weiss and I had to take out some kind of assassin robot..." Jaune looked at the confused look on Ruby's face "It's a long story..."

"Jaune, did you really think you could take your dad in a fight?" Ruby asked reaching up and touching the hand that was holding her shoulder.

"Honestly?" Jaune rubbed his stubble covered face "I didn't have a chance in hell of winning. I ran though every possible way I could think of that fight ending... and I lost each time."

Ruby stopped and looked at Jaune "Jaune... why?"

"I ran away when Weiss and Yang found out what I am... I caused all of what happened in the last couple days, every scratch we took? That's on me right now... I..." Jaune paused "I figured that I had to make it right somehow."

Ruby scrunched her face up as tears started to well up in her eyes and she threw her arms around Jaune with a Sob. "You idiot! Nothing that happened meant that you deserved to get yourself killed!"

Jaune wrapped arms around the crying Ruby as he glanced off to the side and saw the rest of his team their looking at them. Jaune nodded at them as they walked over and got in on the hugging at well, Even Sun got dragged into what quickly became a group hug around Ruby.

"Were all alive sis, you did alright" Yang said to her.

"Yeah, I mean hell we gave them a bloody nose and we didn't get to roughed up in the process" Sun said to Ruby.

"We even managed to find Jaune and Weiss, so I'd say mission complete." Blake said.

"I really do owe all of you an apology for running off though." Jaune said to the others.

"We all understand why you did it Jaune." Weiss said to him wedged deep in the mass hug "Hell if I can accept what you are, i'm sure anyone else here can right?"

That put a slight smile on Jaune's face.

After a few minutes of hugs and tears, mainly on Ruby's behalf they all split off, Ruby looked at the team and with a smile "Lets go home everyone..."

Jaune smiled at Ruby "Yes Ma'am your the boss."

Ruby led the team home more relaxed than she had been in days. Jaune for the first time since he came to Beacon, finally felt like he belonged there.


	27. Chapter 27

**Here we go with chapter 27. the first part was actually something I forgot to add to the last chapter, so I added it here, but this is mostly a setup chapter for what should be a fun little series of chapters that take place between the first and second volumes, I'd add more to the end, but until then, enjoy!**

* * *

Junior was taking a long stride through his still damaged nightclub "I tell you that will be the last time I let anyone from Beacon walk through those doors, I'm still fighting insurance for the rest of the repair settlement!"

Roman Torchwick sympathized "I understand Junior, it's such a hassle these days to run an honest business, which is likely why I don't bother to."

"Right, so the thing I wanted to show you is in this storage closet, go ahead and take a look and tell me if this is what your interested in..." Junior said opening a door where he had shoved a vaguely humanoid object under some clothe bags in the corner.

Roman knelled down next to it and pulled the blankets away to revel what must have once been a rather impressive piece of technology "Impressive, you think Atlas made this?"

"It tried to butcher a Dust Eater in my bar, the damn thing is a walking glitch, but I figured your associates would be interested in it." Junior said leaning against the wall taking a long drag from his cigarette.

"Well we will have to see barkeep." Said a effeminate voice that was walking up next to Roman. "What do we have here Roman?"

"Well, It's badly damaged, and if Junior here is correct, had some serious logic faults, but I'm sure with some effort, Lien, and a good programmer, we could have it up and running in no time." Roman said to the woman

The woman pulled out a Scroll and dialed someone, she spoke into the scroll "Arthur dear it's Cinder, I got a new project here for you, how much do you know about robotics?"

Cinder listened to the voice on the other line with a playful smile "Fantastic, then we'll box up..." Cinder paused and looked at a name written on one of it's wrists "Penny over here to you for a repair, and i'm thinking a couple upgrades as well."

* * *

A few days after the battle at the docks, the combination of Ruby's and Jaune's teams sat crowded around Jaune's teams room. The combined team meeting was called to bring the remainder of Ruby's team up to speed as to what happened at the Docks that night.

"So yeah, that's basically it, Jaune and Weiss were attacked by some kind of killer android, and We got in a fight with he white fang..." Ruby said to the room.

Ren spoke up first after several solid moments of stunned silence. "So your a Dust Eater, and basically no one outside of this room knows it."

"Besides Ozpin yeah." Jaune replied.

"I figured that was just assumed..." Ren spoke again.

"So yeah, team, welcome to the big secret..." Ruby said meekly.

"I still wish you would have called us in Ruby, at least me I'm your partner after all" Pyrrha chastised her younger teammate.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that guys, I wasn't sure that Jaune here would have wanted us to tell you guys, I mean he wasn't thrilled with the fact Weiss found out." Ruby said in reply.

Weiss chimed in "Besides Ren and Nora were off campus when it all went to hell anyways."

Ren and Nora blushed and looked at each other, Nora spoke up "I offer no excuses, also it's none of your business."

Jaune leaned over to Weiss who was next to him and whispered "Semi related, does the school still offer free contraceptives?" Causing Weiss to blush a bit

Ruby took notice of this "Something you want to share with the rest of the class _Arc!"_

"No ma'am just making jokes here!" Jaune said flippantly in reply.

Ruby still shot him a dirty look, Yang leaned over pointed at her eyes, than at Jaune.

Jaune coughed a bit "Seriously though, were all cool here right? I'm not going to wake up with a large altesian solider named 'Torque' aiming a rocket launcher in my face at some point?"

Ren smiles "If you don't mind us asking questions about Dust Eaters in private than I see no reason to rat you out to Atlas..."

Jaune smiles "Sure that's fair, ask away!"

"Oh I got myself a question that's been bugging me for a while now Jaune" Yang said with a smirk that make Jaune fundamentally uncomfortable.

"I'm going to regret this Yang, but what do you want to know?" Jaune asked

"Well I'm just curious why some people keep commenting on how nice you smell" Yang said with a playful smile and not unsuitably tugging slightly on the sleeve off the hoodie Ruby was wearing.

Jaune pauses for a second as he looks a bit nervous "Is there anything else you want to ask instead? It's kinda Personal Yang..."

"Nope" Yang smirked and stared down Yang, at this point the entire room was looking right at him waiting for an answer.

"Crap" Jaune said flatly "Okay fine, So it's like this, Dust Eaters, Male and Female, have a certain scent they let off to let other Dust Eaters know that their single, it make dating allot easier because you can, at a sniff, tell if the girl your throwing your mack down on is single or not."

"Wait a sec, how does that work, how does your body know your single if relationships are mostly a social construct?" Ren asked directly.

"Well Ren, Basically, we know that the other must be single because they had not... Well..." Jaune struggled for words

"Banged?" Yang said helpfully.

"Yeah that, the Dust Eater had not banged in the last month or so..." Jaune said rubbing the back of his neck.

Weiss looked at Jaune "So basically were smelling how bad you are with the ladies?"

Jaune "Actually..." He shoots a death glare at Yang who's been progressively smiling wider as the conversation carried on "That's only Dust eaters, Non dust eaters only really smell one of us when..." Jaune blushed hard "When they find the Dust Eater... Gods their is no non-embarrassing way to say this"

"What Jaune is trying to say is that people who keep talking about how nice he smells are basically telling them that they want to Bed him" Yang said barely containing her laughter.

Jaune quickly pulled his head into his hoodie to hide his embarrassed face as Weiss Ruby and Blake all turned Beat red, Weiss spoke up "Now wait a damn minute, I do not want to bang Jaune!"

Yang laughed "Oh so those little cuddle sessions you do when you wake up in the middle of the night were, what then?"

Weiss held up a finger "There is nothing sexual about that!"

Jaune tried to back her up through his hoodie "That's true that's more for comfort than anything" Jaune paused "Also stop being a bitch to your teammates Yang."

Yang laughed and fell backwards on the bed kicking "Hey I'm not judging anyone here, Jaune's a handsome guy, we can all admit that!"

Ren said exuding calm "I agree, it's perfectly normal at our age to find ourselves attracted to people our ages, their's nothing wrong with it."

Ruby was silent and staring down at her knee's with a strong blush on her face while Pyrrha rubbed her back.

"Ruby are you okay?" Jaune said to her.

"I uh... Do you need your hoodie back?" Ruby asked with a wavering voice

"No Ruby your fine it's okay, actually our Scents can be a bit, comforting to friends and loved ones as well. It's not strickly about wanting to get in my pants." Jaune tried to say to calm her down.

Yang said adding fuel to the fire "But it does mean you totally thing Jaune's hot!"

Ruby Hid her face in the hoodie to hide her embarrassment.

"Okay so I have a question though." Blake said out loud. "So how come we didn't start to notice your scent for a couple weeks after you got to school?"

Jaune froze up at the question and got pale. Eyes turned to face him as he quickly grabbed a small bit of Dust to chew on to buy a few seconds.

"Oh my god Jaune!" Yang shouted.

"Shut up Yang!" Jaune shouted out as Weiss was next to catch the implication

"Holy crap, there is a bit to unpack there.." Weiss said

"Were not talking about this guys!" Jaune said out loud

Ruby looked at Pyrrha "Wait, what's going on?"

Pyrrha replied to Ruby "I think it just slipped out that Jaune's not a virgin."

Jaune just muttered under his breath "Gods dammit, Look Dying species, we have keep going somehow!" Jaune waved his arms in annoyance "Just drop the damn subject!"

Yang thought about it "So wait, you might have kids out their somewhere?"

Jaune shrugged "Look it was with a girl from a nomad caravan traveling from Menagerie. Not all of use settle in towns, we have several family caravans traveling the world so even if... well what happened to my home, happened, there would always be a handful of use out their to rebuild our numbers." Jaune looked off to the side and hugged his knee's "I mean when a caravan passes through a settlement, it's not uncommon for the males in the village to... well make acquaintances."

Ruby moved over to his side of the bed and put a hand on his shoulder "You don't seem to thrilled about this one bit Jaune."

"I wasn't forced into anything if that's what your implying, it wasn't really anything to me I guess, I mean, I was raised to believe that we had to rebuild our species at all costs. Any kids that result from a, well, encounter... Well they become part of the Caravan and the dad's never hear about it."

"Is it actually possible for you to have kids with a non Dust Eater?" Blake asked catching a nudge from Yang she ignored "I'm just asking because it might be easier for your people's population to grow if you looked at other options."

"Yeah it is, I mean it's not any more impossible than a Faunas and a Human to have kids together, But honestly without the scent... Lets just say I still think everyone in this room is very very pretty."

"Daww, that's sweet" Nora said.

"But I'll admit I'm more attracted to other Dust Eaters." Jaune followed up.

"Slightly less sweet..." Nora said again.

Jaune scratched his stubble covered face "Well not to mention the complications for most non Dust Eater Mothers..."

"I'll bite, like what?" Weiss said

"Uh... well were born with the tips of our horns poking out, that could cause a bit of damage down there, so your going to want to C-Section birth the baby" Jaune said as the girls noticeably cringed a bit. "The rest is dietary, technically we don't require dust to survive till we become toddlers but the trace amounts of dust in a mothers milk helps an infant's dust stomach to develop properly. not enough dust, and the stomach fails to develop and the child starves to death before their 4, to much and they end up requiring more dust than is considered normal... sadly to the same end."

"I guess that would explain why you don't seem interested in playing the field then." Nora said out loud.

"Oh lord no! I'm terrified of the idea of some girl walking up to me with a positive pregnancy. I'd have to explain to them what I'm telling you all now." Jaune said as he glanced over at the increasingly red face Ruby

Weiss chimed in "Still it seems so odd that your family is that casual about letting their kids hook up with strangers, even if they are of your kind and i'm guessing age."

"Well first off, she was older than me by a few years, we wouldn't want anyone having kids that couldn't care for it, and again, dying species, we do what we have to do to survive at all costs." Jaune stated.

Ruby finally had enough of everyone talking about Jaune making babies with them and the mental images she was getting finally spoke out. "Can we please talk about anything else?! What's everyone doing for the holiday break?!"

Blake spoke first "Eh, I guess I'll stay here at school and catch up on studies."

Jaune then spoke out "My status with my people is kinda in flux right now, hell I'm not even sure where home is right now since no one can talk to me about it in case were being listened in on, so I'll stay at school as well." What was left unspoken was the fact Weiss was his partner as well.

"Same with me, I think 17 years of my drunken mother ranting about anything that bothered her while also being paraded around my fathers perverted friends like a trophy are more than enough for me." Weiss spat out as well.

"Damn girl, that's messed up." Jaune said giving Weiss a one armed hug.

"Says the guy who was almost killed by his own father less than a week ago, and just confessed he's required to sleep around to grow his species." Weiss said in rebuttal.

"Still you don't want to go see your family at all?" Ren said to Jaune "I'm sure if you expressed interest in it, they might have someone hand deliver a note or something."

Jaune abruptly pulled Ruby and Weiss into a group hug and said sarcastically "But I have all my family right Heeeeeeeere!" Earning chuckles from the room.

"All jokes aside though, I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself if all three of my teammates were bumming around campus for the entire break. I could call my dad and see if he wouldn't mind setting a few extra beds out." Yang spoke up.

Jaune shrugs "I got no where better to be right now, I'm game."

"Yeah I mean I guess I had better not let Jaune out of my sight for to long as well" Weiss chimed in.

"Well I'm already taking Ren and Nora home to my families place so we'll pass a I suppose" Pyrrha said

"I'll tag along two if the rest of my team is" Blake said.

"Alright, I'll make phone calls and let dad know then!" Yang smiled and said "This is going to be the best Holiday break ever!"

* * *

 **You might find yourself asking, "Wait did he just cash in a 26 chapter long running gag this chapter?" And the answer is yes, yes I did. Also I did pour unapologetic shipping fuel on the bonfire that may or may not go anywhere, we will see. Either way, it looks like the Team's going to Patch in this story line, so it'll be fun to see how that plays out. Till Next time!**


	28. Chapter 28

**Hey everyone so I guess i'm kinda back in a slight writing groove again. So I don't have a lot formally planed out for this story line other than vague idea's and where I want to see things go. I'm also not super sure that Purple dust is a thing, But dust by canon is a bit vague and seems to change between volumes so I hope no one takes offense to a slight ass pull in this chapter in regards to the character Hector. Other than that, I once again don't have to much to say about this chapter, except to say once thanks for reading, and I hope to see you all next chapter.**

* * *

Two uneventful weeks had passed, Ruby, Jaune, and the Gang found themselves riding on board of an airship on the way to the small island of Patch where they would spend the next week with Ruby and Yang's family. Jaune was sitting with a hand on his stomach while Weiss sat next to him. Ruby looked at Jaune with concern, not just because of the air sickness.

Ever since the battle at the Docks Jaune had seemed to give up on grooming entirely, what was a light stubble, was now a a light beard as he leaned back in his seat with his eyes closed, Ruby figured he was waiting on his air sickness medication to kick in.

Weiss didn't look much better, the girl that was once prim an proper had apparently given up on caring how she looked, her hair, previously done up in an almost regal style was tied back into a simple ponytail as she wore the light blue hoodie that became her trade mark, unlike Jaune, this gave her more of a down to earth look, a profound "middle finger" to the family.

In a way, Ruby approved. "So is this going to be your first times at Patch?"

Weiss smiled looking up from her book "Yeah of course it is, I'm from Atlas remember?" she said with a expressionless face

"What about you Jaune?" Ruby turned to Jaune.

Jaune only responded with a thumbs up and a silent prayer to the gods.

"Jeez are you going to be okay? Your turning green." Yang said to Jaune in concern

Jaune gave a wavy hand sign as if he wanted to express uncertainty, it wasn't by mistake he was sitting by a trashcan. Weiss responded by rubbing his back.

Yang smirked to herself as Weiss and Ruby, both of them clearly took a liking to Jaune in different ways, even she had to admit the she valued Jaune as a friend, but had no real interest in the boy "In that way."

Blake leaned over to Yang and asked "So did we ever figure out what Ren and Nora were doing in town a few weeks back?"

Yang snickered and reached over to cover ruby's ears "Hooking up"

Ruby shook off her sister's hand in annoyance "What? why are you covering my ears."

"No reason at all." Yang said smiling as Blake and Weiss chuckled

Blake looked at Jaune who while he was still sitting with his eyes closed had an amused half smile on his face.

"So what's the plan when we land?" Weiss asked Ruby.

"My dad is going to pick us up in his big pickup later in the day after we land, but I thought we'd have some fun in town first!" Ruby said gleefully.

"What kind of fun?" Blake asked.

"Well There's an arcade there where most teens and kids hang out, a few nature trails, stuff like that." Ruby said rubbing her neck.

Yang shook her head "I'll find us stuff to do..."

Most of the group besides Jaune chuckled as the ride continued without incident.

* * *

Landing didn't come early enough for Jaune, who after spending a bit of time having a frank discourse with a nearby bathroom toilet on the ground met back up with his team.

"Alright I'm back, what's our plan?" Jaune asked the team as he rejoined the group.

"Lunch" Yang said bluntly "Most of us are hungry and i'm guessing your stomach's empty."

"Fair enough, where at?" Jaune said in reply.

"Oh! Lets go to the awesome pizza shack near here!" Ruby said almost bouncing in place.

"You just want to go there because they also serve fresh baked cookies..." Yang chided her sister.

"What can I say? They are the second best cookies I've ever eaten..." Ruby said slightly embarrassed at being called out.

"What? Since when, what are your new favorites?" Yang asked out loud.

Jaune coughed and looked to the side. "What?" Yang asked looking at Jaune

"You gave me a skull fracture over her new favorite cookies a couple months back" Jaune chided.

"Oh yeaaaaaah" Yang said out loud. "I must of kicked you so hard that I forgot..."

"Classy..." Jaune said in a flat tone.

"I don't know, Pizza is not normally my thing to be honest." Weiss spoke up.

"You'll love it! Or you can order a salad, I don't really care to be honest Weiss." Ruby said with a smirk.

"Blake, What do you say?" Jaune asked her.

"Eh, do they have anything with anchovies?" Blake asked the group.

"Oh Blake, this is an island, we can get anything with fish on it if you want..." Ruby said.

"I'm game then." Blake said.

"Sorry Weiss your kinda outvoted here." Jaune said.

"Wait, you didn't vote though." Weiss said looking at her partner.

"Yeah but that's because I don't care what we eat Weiss." Jaune said with a straight face.

"We need to work on you..." Weiss said poking Jaune in the chest.

"Work on me after we put back in me what the gods took out just now." Jaune said as he started walking with the rest of the group.

Weiss blew a raspberry at her partner as they walked on, Yang and Blake chuckled, Ruby looked a bit grossed out at the vomit joke Jaune just made. All of them, Jaune included paused when someone with a high pitched voice screamed his name.

"What in the He-" Jaune was cut off as a small fast moving object ran directly into his stomach putting him into a stumble.

"Hey we found one of Jaune's kids!" Yang loudly proclaimed, which earned her a light smack upside the head from Ruby.

"V-Violet, what in god's names are you doing here?" Jaune said to the small Dust Eater. The others looked at the small blue haired girl who looked to have been about 5 or 6 as she violently hugged Jaune as tight as she could. it was apparent what she was as she had clear blue scales and small horns that didn't extend nearly as far back as a grown Dust Eater would.

"I'm here playing silly!" The girl now known as Violet said out loud.

"Okay that's fine, but why here?" Jaune said desperately covering her head to hide her horns.

Violet got an offended look on her face and said "Because we live here now stupid!"

Weiss snapped out shock of the small girl tackle hugging her partner, Yang and Ruby instantly flanked the small girl making squeals at her.

"Oh my god she's cute!" Ruby said.

"We must protect this child with out lives!" Yang said.

"Brother Jaune who are these weirdos?" The small girl asked innocently.

"Violet, these are my friends from beacon, Blake, Ruby, Weiss, and Yang." Jaune said pointing at each of them. "Ladies this is my, well now youngest sister Violet."

Violet smiles wide and waived at each other them. "They seem nice!" Before she leaned in close "Are any of them your girlfriend?"

Jaune blinked a few times "Your being weird sis..." Jaune went back mentally to something she said "Wait you said that you lived here now?"

His smiled beamed wide "Yeah, everyone moved here after the bad men burned home down! Uncle Hector was in charge till Mommy woke up!"

Jaune winced a bit "Yeah, that's great sis, who's keeping an eye on you here though?"

Ruby tugged on his Jaune's hood "I think that guy is..." as she pointed behind Jaune.

Jaune turned to look at the tall imposing man with purple hair tied back into a ponytail and a goatee "Jaune..."

Jaune winced "Uncle Hector, it's been a while..."

"Indeed, I see your sister found you just fine, she's a hard one to keep an eye on." He said stepping up to his slightly shorter nephew.

"Yeah... She uh, She's Like that." Jaune said with an unusual meekness in his voice. "Girl's this my uncle on my fathers side Hector Arc."

"Hmm" Hector grunted at them barely bothering to make eye contact.

Jaune stood up in front of his uncle with his hands behind his back not quite making eye contact with his uncle. His uncle sized him up quickly enough "You seem to have grown slightly stronger at that damned school of yours, come with me, we need to talk." Hector commanded.

"Yes sir." Jaune said without hesitation "I'll meet up with you all later." He said to the girls before he walked off.

* * *

Minutes later Jaune, and his uncle,huddled around a table in a nearby park while violet was playing nearby, Jaune struggled to make eye contact with his Uncle. Purple Dust Eaters were rare, as Gravity Dust was often a challenge to come across.

"I imagine you know why were talking right now." Hector stated directly.

"Because of my father." Jaune said not looking at his uncle.

"Make eye contact boy, you were raised better than that!" Hector demanded.

Jaune looked directly at his Uncle. "I won't apologize... He was about to murder Beacon students..."

"I'm not asking for your apology boy, I want your explanation." Hector said in an even commanding tone.

"Dad has clearly lost his way, we would have murdered four students, none of them were part of the SDC, or Atlas." Jaune paused to focus his thoughts "All of them were my friends, and i'm afraid he might have been willing to do the same to me..."

Hector leaned back in his seat. "And those students?"

"Three of the 4 came here with me, the fourth I didn't know well." Jaune answered

"And they all knew what you are?" Hector stated accusingly. "They didn't seem shocked by your sister at all."

"They all found out in their own ways..." Jaune answered directly.

"So I am to assume you disagree with your Father's methods? That you no longer care about getting revenge for you sisters?" Hector stated as his eyes bored holes into Jaune as if he was trying to sense his very soul.

"I care about honoring my sisters, I want to honor them by trying to show the world just how wrong they are!" Jaune said narrowing his vision at his uncle "I will not lose my way like my father has!"

Hector laid a simple sword on the table. "You know what this is boy."

"The sword of legend, the blade that ended the great war. _Crocea Mors_." Jaune answered as he looked at the simple weapon that say before him.

"A blade that can only be wielded by a Dust Eater, but one that we have been unable to wield to it's full potential since the days of your Great Grandfather." Hector stated.

"Your point?" Jaune asked.

"I never had a need for this, but as the elder brother it was my duty to carry it until I decided someone was worthy to carry it. I carried it out of simple obligation, and out of _Loyalty_ to my family name." Hector

"So you believe me to be disloyal? Because I wasn't going to allow my father to turn himself into a butcher?" Jaune barked back.

Hector grimaced. "When your father and I taught you to fight, your father wanted to teach you to simply beat down Grimm, he taught you the motions, but not the reason behind them, I fear that had stunted your development as a warrior." Hector eyed Jaune up and down. "A true warrior needs a purpose, and you seem to have found one, that pleases me, but I have to question this misguided loyalty to those non Dust Eaters you call friends."

"I'm loyal to my friends, and my family. I can be loyal to both." Jaune spoke back.

"If I recall properly, one of those _friends_ is a _Schnee_ Jaune." Hector said raising an eyebrow. "Can you say your loyal to your people if _she_ is counted as a friend?"

"Trust me, I wanted to kill her for a good couple weeks after the attack uncle." Jaune said.

"But not anymore?" Hector asked bluntly.

"No... we spent too much time save each other's asses for me to want that now." Jaune said.

"It seems we have little else to discuss then, I will warn you though, our people are divided on the subject of your actions. Take care around others of our kind." Hector said standing up

"I will, but at the same time, I should at least make time this week to see mom." Jaune said.

"I will make sure that when you do, that you and _anyone_ you choose to bring with you will not be accosted during your visit. I am the current leader of our people for the time being so they will listen to me." Hector said as he turned to walk away.

Jaune watched him for a second before he noticed something "Wait Uncle!" Jaune said as he picked up the sword he left on the table "You forgot this!"

Hector looked at the hand Jaune used to hold the ancient sword, noticing the subtle reaction from the blade as he was handed it, Hector smiled and put a hand on his Nephew's shoulder "Thank you, seems I'm becoming forgetful these days." Hector said as he turned and left.

Jaune didn't quite understand what his Uncle meant by that, but he turned and made plans to return to his friends, but his heart felt heavy at one statement his uncle said. "Uncle Hector said he would have to make sure I'm not accosted if I go to our village..."

Jaune turned to walk back to his friends his mind racing with questions about the path he choose.


	29. Chapter 29

**Okay so this one is a bit of a shorter chapter, owing to the fact that as Christmas closes in here in my little corner of the world, so I have not had anywhere near the amount of time needed to sit down and hammer out a chapter, I hope this one doesn't come out a bit disjointed, but I'll go ahead and post it as is. This one also had a bit of a curse being it's an "In between chapter" between major bullet points, and I had to stuff items in here that I wanted to do, but couldn't fit it in other chapters.**

 **Either way, as always, I hope you enjoy, and see you next chapter.**

* * *

With the students out of classes for the next week, Ozpin had time to work on other projects, one such project involved the man on the other side of the phone, James Ironwood.

"Is their any word on the disappearance?" James said over the audio of Ozpin's projected screen.

"No... Honestly if you had come to me three weeks ago I might have had something by now, but the odds are strong odds that... 'agent' of yours is no longer in vale. " Ozpin advised drinking coffee.

"God dammit Ozpin we talked about why I couldn't come forward about this before now! The prototype slipped her handler and went off on her own, the last confirmed location was near an area where the unconscious bodies of several White fang members were located by Vale law enforcement!" James shouted on his end.

"I am also aware the reason your tasking me to investigate with my agents under the table instead of reporting this to the Vale government, Because you deployed an illegal prototype AI driven weapons platform into the Kingdom of Vale with the intent of assassinating the leadership of the Dust Eater Resistance." Ozpin said with an even tone.

"Don't call them a resistance, their terrorists, just like the White Fang. We know that they also lashed out against Vale and almost butchered several of your students.!" James spoke loudly.

"A situation that was thankfully resolved without fatalities." Oz said in reply.

"It doesn't mater Ozpin, the governing council is going to vote to propose a bill for intervention in Vale, I may have two seats on the council, and thus two votes, but this bill is gaining favor. You know what this means Ozpin." James said

"I never imagined the day would come that you would consider threats against your friends James." Ozpin said facing the window.

"This is not a threat Ozpin, it's a warning, I need your help to get things under control or else... I can only do so much, I can't out bribe the Schnee family." James stated.

"Send me your plan, an i'll see what I can do to push it through Vale, but understand I won't be able to push the Kingdom towards anything overly violent." Ozpin sighed out.

"I understand..." James said.

Ozpin paused to take a long drink from his coffee and to pick up a tablet.

"About the second item on our plate, I sent you and the list of possible Fall Maiden replacements, I wanted your feedback." Ozpin said taking a sip out of his drink.

Ozpin watched as James looked down the list, he noticeably paused at one point. "The council wouldn't approve of this last entry here, I'm telling you now."

"Understandable, but it's still on the table to be safe." Ozpin stated as mater of fact.

"It says here you have and idea for a bodyguard for the Maiden... a first year student? Are you serious Ozpin?" James said incredulously.

"I have not approached them yet, it's on my list, but he is familiar with several candidates on the list. He's also a rare talent in these parts, he's more than proven his combat skills in both controlled trials as well as in uncontrolled test environments." Ozpin said while drinking his coffee some more.

"Alright, I'll hear you out then, tell me about this Jaune Arc..." Said James.

* * *

Taiyang fumed at his kitchen table talking to his daughters and their friends "That son of a bitch!"

"Dad, I get it your pissed off, but were okay!" Yang said putting a hand on his shoulder

"Okay? Your okay?! That Dust Eating son of a bitch almost killed one of you, and he almost forced Ruby to choose who he shot!" Taiyang shouted, it was rare for anyone to see Tai angry, he was not known for losing his composure like this.

"Sir, I don't think he knew who your daughters were, I'm not sure he would have reacted if he did know..." Blake chimed in sitting next to Ruby who was trying to hide in her seat as hard as he could.

"That's doesn't make it better, I'm the one that pushed for the survivors of his village to use Patch as a rest stop, and later a place to rebuild, I didn't do it so I could bring down the Vale Army down on our heads after he murdered a bunch of teenagers in Vale City!" Tai said as he stood up and paced.

"Lets at least be thankful that everyone walked away with only light injuries." Weiss finally spoke up after sitting in near silence the whole time.

"Right because the Schnee family didn't just create some of the worst unrest in vale in my lifetime with that stunt!" Tai lashed out.

Silence filled the room after that statement, Weiss could only look down in shame as Tai bored holes into the nearby wall a few moments pass when from the entry way a voice spoke up

"Uh sir, if it's all the same, my partner doesn't exactly represent her family." Jaune said standing in the entryway having just found his way in.

They all turned to face Jaune, who stood their with his hood pulled up hiding his eyes. "Well no more than my father represents mine I suppose."

"Jaune where have you been, you split up from us hours ago." Ruby asked with a look of worry on her face.

"I uh..." Jaune paused with the same lack of confidence he wore earlier in the day when he was speaking to his uncle "I got a bit sidetracked on the way over here."

"What was her name?" Weiss asked bluntly

"Holy crap Weiss really?" Jaune spat out

"Well you might as well spit it out Jaune" Yang joked as well.

"Uh... Fine... Her name was Rose... I need to go lay down for a bit... and sir?" Jaune looked at Taiyang. "I know I don't really speak for my family, but I am sorry for what happened."

When the room fell back into silence, Jaune quietly stepped out and went to rest.

"Shit..." Tai said "Didn't even cross my mind they had burred their lost relatives on Patch." Tai rubbed the back of his neck.

"Should we go talk to him?" Ruby said out loud.

"Better let him rest Ruby, sounds like he had a rough day so far." Yang chimed in.

Ruby leaned back into her seat and sighed out loud.

* * *

A couple hours earlier, Jaune had managed to find his way to a small graveside, with simple graves for Dust eaters that fell in the raid on their now lost village. it didn't take long for him to find where his sisters were buried in a shared plot, with a twin headstone, a simple cared slab with their names and dates of birthdays.

Jaune approached slowly, each step forcing him to reopen the worst of his emotional wounds. This was the first time he saw either of them in months... and now he'll only be able to see them in a marker over a grave site.

He managed to make it to the burial site itself before he fell to his knees as his emotions overwhelmed him, He balled his fists up in an impotent

"Hey girls, it's been a while, sorry I haven't been around" Jaune said to the headstone while sitting on his knees. "I guess, well I guess this would have been a lot sooner if I was told where you both were..."

Jaune let his hand trace through the grass next to where he sat. "I guess I can't blame out people for not wanting me to know where this place is, considering what's been going down at Beacon the last few months. Being partnered with Weiss, fighting along side her, fuck... Becoming friends with her." he paused briefly "Almost getting into a fight to the death with dad..."

His head drooped as he he was hiding from there gaze. "None of it was part of the plan..." His hand dragged up from the Grass to his face "I wonder if would have gone better if I never left, would you two have been alive?"

The silence didn't have any answers for him.

"You know, I think you would have like them... my friends... Ruby, well she's allot like you two, full of energy, spirit, It takes allot to upset her..." Jaune looked straight up into the sky as he kept talking "Blake understands the struggle more than any of them, she's been in the same place we are now, having to hide what we are, so we don't get butchered..."

Jaune forced a bit of a smile "Yang is pretty much a human version of our oldest sister, I mean, she's pretty protective of us, and honestly is really the only reason our team is even close to eating healthy and taking care of ourselves"

Jaune shook his head as his smile faded "Honestly... I'm not sure you'd like Weiss...she's a hard one to like sometimes, she had a lot of growing to do, and she needed a serious backslapping from reality, but she's probably grown the most out of all of us. I can honestly say that I kinda hope she someday makes it to the point where she's running the family business, I think she'd do good, not just for our people, but well the world..."

Jaune sat their in silence for a while before he stood up wiping his eyes "Good talk... I'll try to come back soon okay?"

As he walked off, the black bird that watched him flew off into the distance.


	30. Chapter 30

**So this a bit of an overdue update, being a father of two, and working for one of those industries that see's a serious uptick in work around the holidays every year, not to mention the collaboration project with the r/Rwby Discord's Fanfiction corner I was working on tied me the hell up working on it and not this. I'd link to the final results of that project, but I don't think everyone made the deadline for their chapter, and my own chapter was kinda short compared to chapters I write on here.**

 **My Christmas went well enough, I worked Christmas eve, and sadly we all came down with the flu, and I basically had a preexisting untreated ear infection flare to the point of going deaf for a week in my left ear. But I got Transformers and Socks for Christmas, and honest that's what I wanted, so no complaints :P. So yeah that chapter was overdue as hell, and I'm sorry for that, I'm going to kick myself back into a regular writing routine here again and see if I can't get this fic back on course while I had other idea's for other half baked story idea's come into my head. Not all of them Rwby related of course.**

 **Until next time everyone, hope you enjoy today's chapter.**

* * *

"Absolutely not!" Loudly proclaimed to his partner.

"You said that your uncle said that anyone you brought with you would be safe from harm." Weiss spoke up pointing a finger at Jaune.

"Yeah but it would take the combined power of all 4 maidens and the old man himself to protect a Schnee in a Dust eater village." Jaune said placing his arms on his hips.

Weiss glanced back into the windows of the home they were staying at the last couple nights, she could clearly see the faces of 3 other girls and one old man trying to discretely watch the conversation from inside the house.

"I need to do this Jaune, I... I feel like I owe it to myself to see the truth that's been kept from me my whole life..." Weiss folded her arms saying as she failed to make solid eye contact with Jaune.

"I take you there, the only thing your going to see is your own heart being torn from it's chest! That's not even hyperbole, I've seen my uncle do that to an Ursa once." Jaune half shouted. "I'm not going to willingly lead my partner to her death!"

"I can take care of myself!" She paused to think "But if it will make you feel better, we can take Ruby with us."

"Okay. I'll bite, Why?" Jaune said folding his arms in front of him.

"Well you did say that you doubt you could get away with bringing everyone with us right" Weiss smirked as she spoke

"With _me,_ but yes I did say that" Jaune said raising an eyebrow.

"Well surely they don't want to raise hell on patch by assaulting the daughter of the Huntsmen who gave them this opportunity right? And besides, she team leader, that has to mean that she has some kind of hidden super talents." Weiss said in that 'know it all tone' that was known to annoy the hell out of Jaune from time to time.

"Cardin Winchester is a team leader as well, so your argument is kinda invalid Weiss." Jaune said flatly.

"Yeah but his team and Coco's team's to work exceptionally well together." Weiss retorted.

"Fair point, and i'll admit that having Ruby with us might by us a few moments before were set upon if things go south." Jaune quipped sarcastically

"It will be fine..." Weiss paused "And it it's not fine, I won't hold you responsible."

"Oh hell no you won't, depending on how bad it goes i'm going to strongly hint that it was my plan to lure you into a trap the whole time." Jaune said only being _kinda_ serious.

"You know you like me to much to do that." Weiss chuckles lightly slapping him in the stomach

"To get torn limb from limb by a lynch mob of Dust Eaters over? Honestly I only like Ruby's dog enough for that." Jaune said this time fully serious.

"I would be deeply hurt by that if Zwei wasn't the cutest damn dog I have ever seen in my life." Weiss countered. "Still, Am I going with you or not?"

Jaune sighed and pinched his nose. "Keep your hood up and your hair tired back in a pony tail at all times, and tell Ruby she can come along as well." Jaune looked sternly at the white haired girl "Please don't make me regret this Weiss?"

"Hey, it's me were talking about!" Weiss shot a winning smile at her partner as she walked off to go get Ruby.

Jaune muttered under his breath "Yeah, that's the problem Weiss, that's the problem..."

* * *

It didn't take long for Jaune, Weiss and Ruby to arrived at the encampment of the Dust eaters, the area was scene of vaguely organized chaos as Dust Eaters, few of them bothering to conceal what they are went about the process of assembling prefabricated structures for housing. In effect in the last few months, they had managed to take what clearly started as a series of Tents, and slowly turn it into town in of itself.

Jaune also noticed the looks he was getting, he waved back at those who waved at him, but he also got some harsh glares from some of the other Dust Eaters.

"I guess Hector is not going to be our escort after all" Jaune mused "So obviously lets all behave."

"I got to ask, how come your so nervous around other Dust Eaters?" Ruby asked

"Actually I'm a bit on the short side as far as Dust Eaters go..." Jaune rubbed his neck "I'm also not quite as tough as most of the others" Jaune chuckled "Actually most of the town can kick my ass."

"Ommph" both girls said in unison.

"Although that would explain why we have yet to see a Dust Eater shorter than you besides your sister" Ruby added.

"You would notice that wouldn't you" Jaune said pinching his nose.

Weiss glanced over at where one group was constructing a prefab house, as they kept walking, noting some supply crates with a very familiar snowflake symbol on the sides of them. "Are those?"

"Yeah I saw them as well" Jaune said looking at the same Crates "Sounds like dad is sending some of the SDC supplies they raid back here to help rebuild, I guess that's only fair."

Weiss looked like she didn't agree at all. "I wonder how many of my family's workers died in the process."

Jaune didn't respond and kept walking.

Ruby glanced over at a crowd forming "Hey what's going on over there?"

Jaune glanced over and listened in for a bit before getting a wide grin on his face "Oh man were lucky, come on, its a Color Festival for someone!" He then grabbed both girls hands and practically dragged them over to see what was commotion was.

"Jaune what's going on?" Ruby asked

"Just watch." Jaune said as he pointed into the circle of gathered people.

Inside the circle, a young dust eater girl, one with dull grey scales and hair sat in what looks like her mothers lap as her father carefully laid out dust shards of different colors in front of the girl.

Jaune explained to the others "Her scales just came in, so now she'\s ready to eat dust for the first time, the color she chooses here will determine her Dust color for the rest of her life."

"Oh wow, this is awesome! right Weiss?" Ruby said over to Weiss.

Weiss just stood silent watching the little girl as she squirmed in her arms. While this was going on Jaune chuckled seeing a few of the older men taking bets on something.

"What are they betting on over there?" Ruby asked

"Well, I suppose there betting on what color of Dust she's going to choose." Jaune said to Ruby.

"H-How does she know what color of dust to take?" Weiss asked.

"Well it's not so much as a choice, but the little one is going to be drawn to color of dust that most attracts her" Jaune said in reply not taking his eyes off the small Dust Eater

"What draws her to one color over another?" Ruby asked

"Hard to say really, No two people are the same in that sense, someone like the smell of a certain dust color, some are drawn to their favorite color." Jaune said.

As they watched and several dust shards of dust are laid out before her, the trio watched as the mother finally let the little girl go so she could make a choice. The Toddler ran over in that overly excited way that only a toddler can, and knelled down in front of the dust shards as she looked them over as if deeply thinking about her decision.

Ruby spoke up "I bet she picks red" Weiss quietly retorted "No way, she totally looks like she's going to pick white."

Jaune retorted "Both her parents are green's. she's more likely to go the same route as her parents."

The Trio kept watching until the little girl picked up a Yellow piece of Dust and quick started chewing on it with a giggle, the crowd started to cheer loudly as she gleefully munched down on the entire shard.

"A Yellow, got to admit I didn't see that coming" Jaune said with a smile in his lips.

"She looks happy." Weiss said to no one in particular.

Before their eyes, the young girls looked at her scaled arms as the changed yellow, and although the little girl couldn't see it, he hair also changed color to being just a slight bit more of a deeper shade of yellow than Jaune's own, the little girls parents quickly ran up and threw arms around her pulling her into a hug.

Jaune rubbed a tear from his eye "We got real lucky today, we don't get to celebrate nearly enough Color Festivals."

Ruby and Weiss both looked at Jaune's face as he stared at the happy family. for the first time in a long time, he actually looked pretty happy about something.

"Hey Jaune" Weiss said to him.

"Yeah what's up?" Jaune asked back to her.

"Uh, it's nothing I just wanted to say thanks for letting us see this with you today." Weiss said looking off to the side.

"Yeah I mean, how cool was that to see!" Ruby said as well.

"Well play your cards right, and you might be able to see that again someday!" Jaune said pointing finger guns at the pair.

Both girls looked at each other, and then back to Jaune "What exactly did you mean by that?" Weiss said putting her hands on her hips.

"I mean, if I can get back in my people's good graces, we might get invited back here for the next Color Festival. Why What did you think I meant?" Jaune said with a look of confusion.

The two girls both shook their heads in disbelief "Never mind Jaune, What's next on our itinerary today?"

Jaune shook his head "Yeah, the next thing is meeting my mother..."

Jaune was not looking forward to that part.


	31. Chapter 31

**So after a significant bout of writers block, and more than a handful of real life complications, here we are on the cusp of Volume two. I had a bit of a time trying to get this conversation just right, and it actually turned out to be a slightly longer chapter than I first thought. either way, I hope you enjoy this read, and I'll see you all next time.**

* * *

Jaune, Weiss, and Ruby all arrived at the front step of the Arc residence, Jaune knew his mother, the defacto leader of the Village in the absence of it's true leader, Jaune's father. As Jaune approached he made note of the two dust eaters keeping guard at the door.

"So this is it huh?" Weiss said to Jaune as she could read the conflicted emotions on his face.

"Looks like it." Jaune replied.

"It's going to be fine, she's your mother, she family." Weiss said putting a hand on his arm.

"That's not really helping considering your family Weiss." Jaune said rubbing his neck

"And your family is more than likely alot nicer than them." Weiss said with a smirk.

"Lets see how you feel after this okay?" Jaune said.

Ruby just looked back and forth between the two as they walked. the trio eventually walked over to the front door, where the Dust Eater pair stood up and blocked the way forward. "You have business here?"

"Nothing formal, just visiting my mom inside." Jaune said with a smile.

"With two guests?" The guard said pointing at the pair of girls behind them.

"I wanted to introduce a couple of my classmates, this was cleared by Hector already." Jaune said holding his hands out to the side to show he was not armed.

"I'm sure he did, and I'm sure he means well, but we heard about how you almost came to blows with Julius, and we need to be sure that won't happen here." The guard said bluntly to Jaune.

Jaune shook his head "None of us came armed, and even if I did Hector would demolish the three of us."

The guard smirked "It is good to see you though Jaune, Good ahead, they already know your coming."

Jaune started to walk by with the girls and stopped "Anything I need to be aware of?"

"Well, Expect a scolding the say the least" The guard said putting a hand on Jaune's shoulder.

* * *

"Thanks..." Jaune said back to the guard as they walked into his mothers home.

Ruby, Weiss, and Jaune all entered the medium sized Prefabricated dwelling, the first thing the Trio noticed was the imposing form of Hector sitting at a nearby dining table, Jaune heard the sounds of pots and pans banging around inside of the kitchen, knowing that was his mother. He glanced over at Hector and nodded in greeting.

Hector just nodded his head into the kitchen. holding his hand out to signal the girls to stay put, he walked into the kitchen, and for the first time in months, was greeted by the red headed face of his mother.

Jaune took in the differences, Mina's hair was a couple inches longer and slightly more unkempt than he remembered. He noticed a silver streak through her hair that wasan't there before.

"Hey Mom... It's...uh... It's uh been a while." Jaune said trying to fight back the wave of emotions he was feeling.

Mina Arc turned around with a bit of effort clearly leaning on her left leg as she turned "Well look who the cat dragged in?" Mina put her arms on her hips. "My little rebel of a son."

"Mom I'm a foot taller than you..." Jaune said folding his arms.

"Your still little to me." Mina said to her son.

Jaune smiled as his eyes teared up "I'm sorry mom, I messed up didn't I?" His eyes glanced to his mothers primitive wooden prosthetic leg.

Mina leaned on counter "And how exactly did you do that?"

"Well depending on you talk to, I betrayed our people, I'm colluding with the enemy, I... I'm betraying my sisters memories..." Jaune said as he steadied himself on the counter.

Mina walked over to her son and pulled him into a hug "Honey, Your an idiot yes, but I knowyou never acted unless you believed fully in what you were doing. So rather than yell at you or smack up upside the head, I'll allow you explain yourself to me."

As Jaune hugged his mother back "He was going to kill her mom, the girl in the red cloak outside, I knew that if I allowed him to do it, I couldn't look at the rest of them in the eyes ever again." Jaune shook a bit "And if he killed her, then Vale would have turned on us,hell Ruby's father would have turned on us, he's the reason we can even be on Patch!"

His mother pulled back and looked her son in the face "I see, so you were standing up to your father to, I suppose in your own way, protect him, and us as well. I guess that means you knew what the possible results of this would be?"

Jaune looked off to the side "I did, I'm not blind to the fact that dad has been sending dust here from his raids..." Jaune looks at his mother "But as a huntsmen, I have an obligation to try and stop him if he threatens Beacon or Vale again..."

"I wish it didn't have to be so, I know what the cost of convictions such as yours can be Jaune." Mine put a hand to her sons cheek. "I believe you think your doing whats best for us, are you willing to ignore what your father is doing for this village with his raids so you can help the very people that hate you?"

"I think what dad is doing is a great short term solution, but we can't think strictly of the short term, we need to show the people of Vale what we can offer them, what we could bring to the table so we can get their acceptance." Jaune said. "Saffron became a huntsmen in Mistral for that reason, and..."

Jaune's mother said never losing her smile "And?"

"I... I don't think Rose would have agreed with dad on this, I want to be the best damn Huntsmen I can be for her, and I can't be that if dad turns the world against us." Jaune said his eyes wandering.

"Well, in that case, as the current leader of our people, I have made my decision about you then Jaune. Our people won't let me let you off Scot free, but I don't need to be harsh on you either." Mina said biting her lip. "With that in mind, I'm not going to banish you or anything dramatic, at least not permanently, But after you leave here today you are hereby asked not to come back to this village until you do one thing."

Jaune looked at his mom "What do you need me to do." Jaune's voice wavered.

"You will Graduate Beacon, once you do that, your welcome back. I figured this way, you can concentrate on what you want to do, while I get to throw your dad's supporters a bone." Mina said slightly sadly.

"You can come and visit me at school you know" Jaune said looking at his mother.

"Well give me time for to get a proper Prosthetic. one of the mechanics said they might be able to take one of those Atlas robot's and convert a leg into a prosthetic for me." Mina said knocking on the wooden prosthetic leg of hers.

"Well I hope that works out mom" Jaune said trying not to stare.

"So, I understand you brought guests, don't be rude now, lets go so you can introduce me." Mina said flatly not betraying her feelings.

"Right this way" Jaune said taking his mothers arm so she could lean on him to walk.

* * *

Weiss shuffled nervously in place waiting on Jaune and his mother to come back out from there chat, as the pair came out with Jaune helping his mother walk, her nerves only became more frayed.

"So Jaune why don't you introduce your friends." Mina said with a warm smile.

"Mom this is Ruby rose, and Weiss, two of my friends from school" Jaune gestured at the pair as introduced them.

"I've heard quite a bit about you from your father Ms Rose, I trust you've been keeping him in line?" Mina said as she clasped Ruby's hands in welcome.

"Eh, it's kinda give and take really, were both team leaders at school so we do learn a lot from each other." Ruby smile and said practically bubbling up with joy at meeting Jaune's mother.

"Well, well, Jaune you never mentioned you were a team lead at your school" Mina said lightly smacking Jaune in the stomach.

"Well you know how it is, you help kill a Death Stalker and they think you actually know what your talking about" Jaune lightly boasted.

"Oh is that all?" Mina smirked

"Without giving away what I am" Jaune said folding his arms.

"Slightly better son." Mina said back as she turned to face the other girl who was currently hiding in her hood. "What about you, Weiss was it? I didn't recall hearing your last name"

Weiss said something just slightly to softly to be heard as Jaune and Ruby both shared concerned glances.

"I'm sorry dear, that was a bit to quietly" Mina said staring directly at the young heiress.

"It's... Uh... Schnee ma'am" Weiss said lacking her usual confidence.

Mina's facial expression didn't change "I see, your the famous Schnee that was partnered up with my son at Beacon then?"

Jaune glanced over as other Dust Eaters in his room straightened up tensely, Hector who was lounging casually in his seat say up putting a hand on his sword hilt. Jaune gestured the others behind Mina to stand down with only partial success.

"Yes Ma'am." Weiss said her voice cracking as her nerves started to.

"Well young Schnee, now that you have seen our quint little village, what do you think of it?" Mina asked never quite losing her smile, but clearly looming over the young girl.

Weiss took several deep breaths "It's incredible what you have here, To have been able to rebuild so much after... After what my family did... It's... Just incredible." Weiss said, her voice wavering with emotion.

"I suppose it is, we have come pretty far in the short time th-" Mina said before she was cut off.

"And it make me, so very angry that your family, that your people even have to do any of this... " Weiss said rubbing her eyes no longer able to hold back the emotions she had been bottling up all day. "Seeing Jaune's face when ever he would think about his sisters, seeing what it turned your husband into, seeing people still living in tents. Knowing that it was my family that caused all of it... it just pisses me the hell off!" Weiss said tears streaking down her face.

Jaune put a hand on her shoulder "Hey, it's alright..." He glanced over at Mina who wore a look of genuine shock.

"None of this is alright Jaune!" Weiss shouted at her partner. "Your Mom lost a leg because of my family!"

Mina put a comforting hand on Weiss's shoulder "Ms Schnee, if i'm not mistaken you were at Beacon when our people were attacked is that correct?"

Weiss nodded "I-I was yes."

"And I am to understand you have no control over the family business yet?" Mina said to Weiss.

"Uh.. that's correct Ms Arc." Weiss said as she forced herself to calm down.

"Then why are you so desperate to try and shoulder all the guilt for what they did child? If I was to understand correctly, you are at least partially responsible for my son still being alive today." Mina said helping steady Weiss and pulled her into a hug. "I do appreciate the gesture, but you have not personally wronged our family."

Ruby rubbed her eyes fighting back some tears herself as Jaune sighed in relief.

Weiss shook her head rubbing out the last of her tears. "I'm sorry this is supposed to be a happy day for you Jaune..."

"It still is Ms Schnee, I got to finally meet the two girls Jaune just won't shut up about over the phone." Mina said with a smile. "While I admit, Jaune didn't have the greatest opinion of you the first few times he talked about you, I can see why he clearly see's you as one of his closest friends now." Mina turned to Jaune "I'm surprised you didn't bring, how did you put it... Ah! 'The faunas girl with the nice butt'" around for us to meet as well"

Jaune stammered out a flabbergasted "W-what the hell mom I never said anything like that!" as his face turned red

Ruby and Weiss both looked at him with a look of 'oh _sure_ you didn't.' Before Mina cracked up laughing as did Hector in the background.

"Oh Jaune your still so easy to fluster." Mina said laughing.

Weiss felt the tension leave her as she found her self laughing at her partners embarrassment as well.

"There we go, that much better" Mina said to Weiss causing Weiss to become flustered as well.

Ruby didn't help by asking "So what has Jaune been saying about us?"

Jaune quietly rubbed his neck still flustered as hell while Mina smiles "Maybe we could discuss that over dinner kids."

* * *

At the end of the evening after the trio had taken their leave to head back to Ruby's place, Hector and Mina had the chance to talk about the day.

Hector grunted seeing the Schnee child leave with his nephew and the daughter of the man they called friend. "I have to admit, I had reservations about allowing her to come today."

Mina smirked as her brother in law "Well I had to admit I was intrigued as to what spell she cast on my little boy. if I had even the slightest impression that she was manipulating him in anyway, I would have had you kill her."

"It seems you had little to worry about, I do believe Jaune had somehow ensnared the both of them." Hector chuckled.

"It seems he did, and while my husband is out waging a war of revenge on her family, my son might had struck the strongest blow any of us could imagine against the SDC. He turned the very heiress of the company into an ally." Mina said as she poured herself and hector some dust infused wine.

"He told told me, that would seek his own way to honor his sister, to try and show the world a different path." Hector said to Mina. "I do believe he can do it."

"If he doesn't get pulled in to many directions at once..." Mina said taking a sip of wine. "The school knows what he is, and in the, what, semester he was there? He's already had to fight a mutated Grim, suffered through Dust Starvation, Lost two sisters and a home, was attacked by an Atlas assassin android?"

"Not to mention came into direct opposition of the White Fang, and his own father..." Hector added.

Mina pondered things for a few moments. "I knew I should have pressed him harder to go to Shade academy."

Hector had a laugh and set his sword on the table. "You know, I tested him, to see if the sword responded to him."

"Oh?" Mina said to brother in law.

"It resonated with him." Hector said with a slight hint of pride in his voice.

"Oh... Well I guess you were right then." Mina said halfheartedly.

"I would offer it to him, but I know he wouldn't accept, maybe after his banishment ends, but not now." Hector stated.

"That might be for the best... I doubt he could handle yet another burden in his life right now" Mina said.

"He will need to be ready someday." Hector said before a few minutes of silence passed between the pair.

Mina had a chuckle about something that snapped hector back to attention.

"What are you laughing about over there." Hector said with an amused tone.

"He really did say that his Faunas teammate had a nice butt." Mina said laughing.

"Oh heavens no..." Laughed out Hector "Your kidding me."

"He kinda let slip they all had nice butts actually, you know how he is!" Mina laughed out.

They both laughed for several minutes before calming down.

Mina and Hector would then enjoy the rest of the evening in relative silence.


	32. Chapter 32

**Well I didn't keep you guys waiting for nearly as long this time as I did for the last chapter. Before I get into it, I want to touch on something that I honestly didn't touch on last chapter, and I feel like I should have. Sometime between chapters 30 and 31, we broke 400 readers on this fic, and that to me is insane. I honestly never expected more than somewhere between 50 people, maybe a hundred if I was lucky. I'm still pretty new at Writing, and while I have been trying things out here and there to see what works. I honestly never expected much to come of this.**

 **Also 32 chapters, that's dang near a book at this point. where on earth did I find the time for that? I mean it does up to motivate me to write when something else is calling to me, like some friends on discord calling me to play Warframe with them, or some article my wife links to me online. But, I just look at the Manage story page, realize how many people follow this story, and drag my ass off to pop on some music and write a couple paragraphs first.**

 **Also yeah a couple of your reviews crack me up as well, Like 77coke's questioning if this would make Weiss more or less inclined to get in Jaune's bed, or the very accurate statement that X3runner said, when he said that Jaune is in fact, in story canon, an ass-man.**

 **So I also want to talk ships for a second. I'll be quick as I don't want to take too much time on this topic. But while is is not a shipping fic, shipping happens, so I wanted to be clear on my feelings about how I want to treat ships that are official show canon in this story here. long story short if it's canon in the show (and lets not pretend Renora is not canon.) and it doesn't interfere with the story, assume that it will happen here. So Yeah Renora is clearly happening here. But I'm on the fence about one "Kinda Pairing" from V6 I don't want to get into at the moment since the last episode of that season went public today (when it was uploaded), and I guess I still want to see where that goes if CRWBY actually clarifies if that was a romantic thing or a friendship thing first.**

 **Either way, enjoy the chapter, I'll see you all next time.**

Ozpin paced around his desk reading a report about a certain incident in the dining hall, the eight students at the center of what Glynda refereed to as "One of the most severe food fights, in term of damage to the dining area, this school has ever scene."

Clearly she didn't remember back when they were students here. He let it go however, that was, almost, a lifetime ago.

"So, If the two team leaders would like to start us off as to what led to the food fight today?

Ruby looked up still in a soaking wet hoodie from a stray orange juice cup that she was sprayed with early in the battle. "Well it started off innocently enough I suppose..."

* * *

 _Ruby and Jaune's teams were both sitting together in the dining area, Ruby had not been paying the most attention to the conversation as her head was in the clouds. She could remember Yang spoke up in response to Nora saying something along the lines of "Were going to start this semester off with a bang" in the overly upbeat and jubilant way that Ruby came to enjoy seeing, With a "I prefer to start my semesters off with a Yang!" To the boo's of the rest of the people sitting there._

* * *

 _Ruby opened her mouth to say something when she saw, to her horror a thrown tapioca pudding cup aimed right at yang, one thrown with out thinking, by Nora herself..._

"I mean we all know that sometimes in the heat of the moment we all sometimes act without thinking..." Ruby added glancing at Yang who still had a few bits of pudding in her hair.

Ozpin turned and looked to Jaune. "And what do you want to add to this conversation?"

"To be honest, I was at that exact moment discussing team activities with Weiss and Blake and didn't see the pudding toss, and it grieves me that we were unable to prevent what happens next." Jaune said with a shudder at the end.

* * *

 _Jaune would remember turning suddenly when he heard Yang shout out a loud "Excuse you!" in the direction of Nora, he turned his head just in time to see Yang hurling a milk carton in the direction of Nora with rage in her eyes, Jaune didn't even have enough time to should "Yang!" Before the Deadly projectile weapon was flung at Nora._

 _The carton landed in between Nora and Ren, splashing the pair of them with 2% Milk. This also had the horrific side effect of also ruining Nora's Pancakes._

 _Everyone involved looked in horror at the realization, before the two teams looked at each other, and nearby teams started to make for the doors knowing the hell that was going to be unleashed!_

* * *

"So in other words, the two instigators of the food fight was Ms. Xiao Long and and Ms Valkyrie?" Glynda vocally chided the teams as she was taking notes.

"Uh, I guess, I still feel that the whole thing was "heat of the moment thing" and could have been stopped there..." Jaune said rubbing his neck.

"I suppose you should keep going then" Ozpin said to the group.

Jaune looked at Ruby "I mean I guess we _tried_ to separate the teams to an extent..."

* * *

 _Ruby looked at the milk soaked teammates. and her own soaked book of notes she had labeled 'Best day ever' before saying "Pyrrha?"_

 _Pyrrha was shaking off her own notes while firming holding Nora "Yes Ruby?"_

 _"Let Nora Smash!" She said with a burning determination in her eyes!_

 _Jaune shouted in reply, "If it's a fight they want, We'll give them one! Team, defensive stance Gamma-6!_

* * *

Ruby sheepishly said "I guess mistakes were kinda made?"

"Quite" Ozpin said paying more attention to other things he was working on than the actual discussion being had, he's seen worse.

Ozpin turns to the others "Are you all willing to vouch for this?"

Yang chimes in "I guess, I mean once it was on, it kinda became a bit of an impromptu cross team training exercise."

Pyrrha smiled "I think that's a fine way to put it!"

"I would strongly disagree ms Pyrrha, you yourself caused quite a bit of the damage to that dining hall" Glynda pointed out.

* * *

 _Jaune looked over the stacked tables his team hid behind "Yeah, she's pissed"_

 _Blake looked turned to the team and shouted "What do we do? We've never actually seen Pyrrha mad before!" Seconds before a can of re-fried beans punched a hole in the table a mere half inch away from Blake's head causing her to duck lower._

 _"Who had the bright idea to throw an entire bowl of Pumpkin Pete cereal at her anyways!?" Weiss said._

 _"Look, in my defense, it was hilarious, I mean she's on the damn box, how was I supposed to know she had a pathological hatred of the stuff!?" Jaune said to his team_

 _"Have you ever seen anyone on either team eat the stuff? Or how Pyrrha's eye twitches a bit whenever she see's the Pumkin Pete logo on that hoodie Ruby stole from you!?" Weiss shouted._

 _"Well I suppose not, now that you mention it!" Jaune said as he peaked over using his Dust Eater Senses to try and size up the other teams position and ducking back quickly._

 _"What's the plan boss!" Yang shouted out_

 _"Well the way I see it, we can die as cowards, or we can die as heroes! Point is, that bitch is going to kill us!" Jaune said pointing in Pyrrha's direction._

* * *

Jaune rubbed the bruise on his forehead he got from Pyrrha quietly muttering "Still hilarious." which caught him a slight elbow in the side from Weiss.

"So do any of you have anything to say for yourselves then?" Glynda asked the group directly

Ren stood up and said, his voice radiating a sense of calm and wisdom beyond his years "I would like to think, that in the end, this incident gave us practical hands on experience in thinking outside of the box. We learned the importance of knowing how to improvise weapons when your own weapons are not available. I also believe that our two teams are actually now closer as friends having shared this experience."

Blake stood up as well "I agree with what Ren said, I feel like I understand not just my own teammates, but the members of our sister team far better now."

"Well then you all can understand each other better... while cleaning up the mess you made." Glynda said as she pointed the group at the door "Be quick about it, we need it open before lunch!"

The eight of them went wide eyed with the understanding as to how much work they are going to have to do, and they all stood up to hurry and get started on the task, when Ozpin spoke up, breaking eye contact with his tablet for the first time since the 8 of them say down. "Actually Mr Arc, would you be so kind as to stay, we have a few things to discuss."

Jaune stopped in his tracks and turned to face the headmaster "Uh..." he glanced over at the others "I'll stay if your requesting it."

"Consider this a formal request." Ozpin said.

With reluctance Jaune sat back down as the rest of the group left to get to work on the dinning area. when the others left, Jaune's face turned stern "So what can I help you with then?"

Glynda looked at Ozpin as headmaster focused his undivided attention on Jaune. Jaune himself felt himself slightly unnerved by this as he normally saw Ozpin as someone who splits attention a half dozen ways minimum at any given point in any given day. If Ozpin put his full focus onto him, then he knew this was going to be pretty serious in general, and that honestly scared the hell out of him.

"If you would indulge me for a moment, what is your favorite fairy tale?" Ozpin asked Jaune, his gaze locked directly on Jaune.

Jaune almost started to laugh at the question and let the tension in his shoulder release as he thought about his answer for a second. "I suppose the story about the Silver-Eyed warriors was a childhood favorite of mine. To be honest though our culture focused more on our history than folklore." Jaune said "In that respect, I guess that my favorite tale in that case would be about the Dust-Knight of Vale, who stood with the king wielding the sword of our people in defense against the Kingdom's enemies durring the great war."

"Are you at all familiar with _The story of the Seasons?_ " Ozpin asked Jaune.

"A little, something about 4 young ladies who aided an old man, and in return were granted mastery over strange powers related to elements?" Jaune said in reply. "What's the point of all this?"

"What if I told you, that most of the fairy tales we hold today, are real?" Ozpin asked Jaune

"I'd say your out of your mind to be honest." Jaune said rather boldly.

"In that case, what I'm about to tell you, does not leave this room, and when I'm done, I'll have a single question to ask you, the answer of which, will not impact your standing with me, anyone in this room, or with the school itself, do you understand?"

"Crystal clear so far." Jaune said with a tone of rising suspicion.

"Good, then before we go forward, to ensure your silence, I would ask that you allow my Goodwitch her to inject you with an implant, that will alert us if you talk about our conversation to anyone outside of this room." Ozpin

"Excuse me?" Jaune said with a look of shock.

"The other members of our circle have already consented to this, including Ms Goodwitch and myself. I'm sorry to say that it's quite required." Ozpin said

"Before I agree to this, just what the hell are we going to be discussing here?" Jaune asked, half shouting as he spoke.

"Potentially the very fate of the world itself, and how, you can help us save it." Ozpin said to him.

Jaune thought about this for several long moments "Why me?"

Ozpin smirked "Well, I've seen your interactions with your fellow students in the short time you've been here, as well as your performance in classes so far, and I'm impressed. Well at least as far as I can be with a first year student. However I must admit, your willingness to keep an open mind with Ms Schnee after I had asked you to, was the tipping point."

"So you want me, for this circle you mentioned, to step up to the bat." Jaune said leaning back in his seat.

"Indeed" Ozpin said finger tenting his hands as he leaned forward in his seat.

Jaune's answer was clear as he rolled up his sleeve and held his arm out for Glenda to inject him "This is not a yes, but this is me being willing to hear you out at least."

Ozpin smiled at Jaune watching Glynda inject Jaune's arm with a specialized device. "I'm sure that, after we talk, you will be willing to see the importance of what we are doing here."

* * *

Jaune sat in the chair looking like he was going to be sick, he had been talking to Ozpin for what seemed like hours, but in reality, it was only 45 minutes at the most. His head was swimming with talk about these Maiden's. "Gods..."

Glynda looked at Jaune with concern. "So yeah that's the short version of it kid, we need to safeguard the maidens, otherwise the enemy will use their power to cause unimaginable harm to the world."

Jaune shook his head. "And you want me to act as a protector of one of them... once you find her replacement..."

"That sums up your role in this nicely." Ozpin said.

"How on earth am I suppose to battle someone that can bring one of these maidens down? You said that these maidens could practically alter the freaking weather, or channel powers that could bring down a titan class Grim with ease, and they still beat one maiden already!" Jaune said visibly shaken at the sheer notion that he, even with his Dust Eater talents, could stand up to such a challenge.

"As a Dust eater, you have an insane amount of raw power, and you've come pretty far in using that power already, remember the Mutant Ursa you fought?" Glynda asked him.

"Of course I do, I damn near died to it." Jaune said to Glynda. "It left Weiss with nightmares for weeks afterwards." Jaune said looking to Ozpin.

"We can teach you to harness your strength, to make you able to fight foes like that with ease." Ozpin said with confidence to Jaune.

"In other words, you want to hone me into a weapon." Jaune said.

"What do you think we do at this academy?" Ozpin said with a smirk. "We teach talented individuals, how to fight, we transform them into champions and heroes. One could interpret that as us very much turning students into weapons to fight mankind's war against the Grimm."

Jaune sighed "That's a fair point I suppose. Damn cold way of describing it."

"Think of it this way, your going to get extra training from the headmaster and several top instructors of one of the most prestigious combat schools on Remnant, not just in your claw weapons, but in other weapons as well. This might even prove advantageous in the long term, particularly in the upcoming Vytal Tournament." Ozpin said like the perfect salesmen.

"I never signed up for training for glory or to win titles, I'll take the extra training sure, but only because it'll make me a better Huntsmen in the long term." Jaune proclaimed.

"So you'll join us?" Glynda asked hopefully, in a way that threw Jaune off.

"I will, I mean your already implanted a bug in me and initiated me into one of the closest kept secrets of our world, how could I say no now?" Jaune said.

"Then welcome to the circle, I'll make it a point to introduce you to the others the next time we have a meeting." Ozpin said. "I believe though I've delayed you long enough, go ahead and return to your team."

"Yes I'll do just that, I'll tell them you gave me a stern lecture or something, I'll think of an excuse by the time I'm down there." Jaune said.

Ozpin smiled "See that you do."

As Jaune exited the Headmasters office Glynda loudly sighed. "I really hope he's the right choice for this."

"He's really the best option we have Glynda." Ozpin said still leaning on his desk. "Ms Rose would have been my first choice, but I don't dare risk her as the maiden's guardian."

"Her sister is to much of a hothead as well." Glynda noted "Crow wouldn't have it anyways."

"Jaune Arc needs to be forged, crafted, tempered, like a fine blade would, but if he survives the process, he'll come out the other side a fantastic warrior." Ozpin smirked "Just like his ancestor was."

"His father is working with the White Fang. How do we know he won't be convinced to turn on us by his father?" Glynda asked as she held up a scroll with a picture of Julius on it.

"We don't, we simply have to believe that won't be the case." Ozpin said to no one in particular. "Otherwise I may have damned us all."


	33. Chapter 33

**So this chapter was a couple days later than I had planed for it to be due to some writers block, and honestly having other life issues rear up every chance they got, most money related, nothing worth boring you all over.**

 **Instead I'm going to geek out over something, unrelated to Rwby. A couple days ago, I, being a life long fan of the Transformers Franchise saw that press release talking about how Rooster Teeth is going to be producing a Transformers series for Netflix. To say I'm geeking out kinda hard over this is an understatement! I mean the company behind 3 of my favorite animation shows, RVB, RWBY, and Gen:Lock are going to work on my favorite franchise of all time? Holy crap I am shaking in my seat over this.**

 **Okay so that being said, uh, I am trying to get around about a chapter done a week, it's not always easy to manage life around this, what with a full time job, family, and two kids, but I'm going to try and make it happen, I didn't want to rush the writers block and post a bad chapter, so I hope you understand, I have been spending some time trying to hammer out what I want to do with this volume and I have decided on a few things.**

 **I decided that if I have a choice between showing a scene that happened mostly unchanged from canon, and showing the main cast reacting to it? I'm going to show the reaction, I didn't show the Mercury and Emerald fight against Tukson because it wouldn't play out any different than how it would in canon, nothing in the plot so far made that fight play out differently. But I do address it in this chapter by, well read the chapter and see.**

 **Well, as always, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I'm baffled as to how I managed to hit chapter 33 of this tale, and I'll see you all next chapter!**

* * *

Jaune entered the school's dining hall just as the others were finishing up, he tried to bury his concerns about what he just signed up for deep inside his mind as he approached the two teams who both were looking suspiciously at Jaune.

"Just where have you been? Surely the headmaster didn't need to keep you that long!" Weiss said folding her arms as Blake and Yang both looked at Jaune with folded arms.

"Actually believe it or not, yeah he did..." Jaune said with a flat tone to his voice.

"Wait, why did the headmaster need to retain you for 3 hours!" Nora said, having been clearly eavesdropping on the team's talk.

Jaune thought fast putting a hand behind his neck "Well it was about 50% ripping me a new arse for knowing better than allowing my team to engage in a food fight, apparently I was supposed to know better..."

"Why didn't I get the same lecture?" Ruby asked looking offended.

"Because I'm two years older than you, and apparently had the highest leadership appetite in our graduating class level." Jaune said flatly.

"My age has nothing to do with this!" Ruby said loudly.

"I didn't say it did. I'm just repeating what the headmaster said." Jaune said sternly.

"That still seems suspicious" Blake said from behind Jaune. Jaune mentally cursed her ability to tell when he's lying.

"You can be suspicious all you damn well please Blake, But it doesn't change the reality of it." Jaune barked out at Blake. "Now are you going to keep accusing me of lying, or are you going to let me keep going?"

"I didn't accuse you of-" Blake said defensively backing off.

"No I'm just acting _Suspicious_..." Jaune said cutting her off.

"Jaune..." Weiss said putting a hand on his shoulder.

Jaune thinking on his feet trying to play off the some-watt faked anger "Okay, fine, full disclosure then? My dad came up..."

Ruby winced off to the side "Oh no..."

"Yeah, it seems that having a father being a terrorist that almost killed several Beacon students has caused the school some _significant_ concerns." Jaune said as he started to pace

"That's not right! Your nothing like you father." Ren spoke up "It's wrong for the school to judge you by his actions!"

"You even stood in direct opposed to him" Yang chimed in, "I was there, we all have your back if they try to kick you out over this!"

"Cool your jets Yang, no one said anything about me being kicked out." Jaune said holding up a hand and forced himself to calm down a bit. he thought about the still sore spot on his arm where the implant was injected just a couple hours ago.

"Then what's the problem?" Pyrrha asked looking a bit out of the loop.

"While I don't have to worry about personal reprisal from the school for my dad's actions, I have been advised that my actions, as a precaution, will be under observation by the school itself." Jaune said.

"In other words, you need to be on your best behavior?" Ruby asked looking worried about her best friend.

"Yeah..." Jaune said barely hiding the feeling of relief he was feeling that they were buying this, for the most part.

"Okay, so what as the rest of it when?" Blake said still with a suspicious tone in her voice.

Jaune was more ready for this, and spoke with a bit more confidence. "Well the rest of the part is more to do with my poor showing in combat class" Jaune said sheepishly.

"I don't follow you, your not a bad fighter as all, and you have all the raw strength you need" Weiss said to her partner.

"Except I can't use it in combat class, and I'm only winning about twenty five percent of my matches because of it." Jaune said.

Ruby unintentionally came to his aid "Oh right, and with the Vytal Festival coming up soon, they want you to be able to perform and make the school look better."

Jaune finger guns at Ruby mentally thanking her for helping. "Right, and obviously I can't go full scales during the festival, so I need to get my fighting skills up to speed, and quickly."

Pyrrha chimed in "Well I'm sure we could all help bring you up to speed right?"

Jaune shrugged "I suppose so, but the headmaster is going to have me spend allot of time with other teachers for tutoring as well"

Ruby looked concerned "So we know the Headmaster know's what you are, as does the 8 of us? Who else knows about you now?"

"Just Ms. Goodwitch I think" Jaune said.

Blake still wore a face of doubt, she knew that Jaune wasn't telling the whole story, but she didn't look like she was going to push the issue for now.

"Right... so uh, sorry I wasn't here to help clean that mess up..." Jaune said sheepishly.

"It's fine Jaune, you can buy us lunch to make up for it" Ruby said with a smile.

"I mean sure if you don't mind Single Lien Mistrel takeout then that's fine, because that was my plan for the day." Jaune quipped.

Ren shrugged "Beats the school food, i'm game."

Jaune shrugged prompting chuckles from the others "Alright I'll lead the way then!"

* * *

It was an hour later as they were getting near to the place that even Jaune admitted, was a restaurant in name only to get the cheapest meal he could manage. It wasn't that he was cheep; but being the Son of a Dust Miner turned terrorist meant he wasn't getting as much lien from home as he'd like.

As the group walked he heard Blake gasp, the group turns to look at Blake, who was looking down a side street horrified.

"Blake? What's wrong?" Yang asked placing a hand on Blake's shoulder.

"The Police down there... that's Tukson's..." Blake said still in light shock.

"I'm not familiar with the place" Jaune said looking down the way just before he saw Blake dash off down the road in the direction of the bookstore.

Yang and Jaune ran after her giving chase catching up to her only when she stopped across the road from the store holding a hand up to her mouth.

"No... Please..." Blake muttered as she saw a covered up body being loaded into the back of an ambulance.

Jaune and Yang both caught up to Blake seeing the same sight she saw. "Oh hell, don't tell me..." Jaune muttered out

Yang glance over at Blake "Did you..."

"Yeah, he took me in for a bit after I left the Fang, I order all my books from here as well..." Blake choked out trying to fight back anger.

Yang put a sympathetic arm around her partner. "Hey, I'm sorry, maybe it wasn't what it looked like."

Jaune knew otherwise looking at the number of of police in the area. Blake wasn't fooled either. Blake spoke up "I'm sure the Fang did this, he had been telling me he was planing on leaving them and moving back to Vacuo."

"We'll find a way to make them pay for this Blake" Jaune said to her. "I'll make damn sure of that."

Blake nodded her head not really listening "I think I'm going to head back to Beacon, I'm not hungry anymore..."

Jaune nodded in understanding "You will contact me before you do anything right?"

Blake nodded "I'll be sure that I do."

Yang also chimed in "And if you need someone to talk to, you have us you know?"

Blake said softly "Yeah I know." As she walked off.

Yang stepped next to Jaune "I'm worried about her, not just because of this..."

Jaune nodded "Yeah, she seems to have been suspicious of everything as of late, the way she grilled me earlier, and-"

Yang finished his sentence "-Her obsession with the White Fang. Jaune I'm worried she's going to do something stupid."

"Well keep and eye on her" Jaune said, the part where they both wondered _How_ they plane on keeping an eye on on the stealthiest member of the team went unspoken.

Yang and Jaune stood silent for a few moments, Yang spoke up "What do we tell the others?"

"Just enough of the truth for them to not ask questions, just the way Blake would like it." Jaune said with a shrug.

* * *

While Yang and Jaune were still discussing what they were going to tell the others, Weiss and Ruby had just sent the rest of ruby's team ahead for food. That left the pair alone to talk for a few moments.

The two girls stood awkwardly alone trading glances at each other before Weiss finally had enough of the silence. "So you have a thing for Jaune eh?"

Ruby turned almost as red as her cloak "I-I don't k-now what your talking about..." As she played with the end of her cloak with her hands.

Weiss smirked to herself pretty much confirming her suspicions before Ruby spoke up "You do too don't you?"

Weiss glanced at Ruby with a look of shock meeting the smirking and knowing face of Ruby, Weiss coughed into her hand in a futile effort to hide her growing blush. "It's not like that for me, I mean... He's my partner, and a Dust Eater."

"Oh, is that's a problem?" Ruby asked Weiss directly.

"Of course, I'm going to be taking over my families company someday, and that can't happen if it comes out that I was involved with a Dust Eater." Weiss said folding her arms.

"I... Honestly is that any of your business?" Weiss said defensively

"I was just wondering..." Ruby said kicking a small rock off the sidewalk they were waiting on.

The pair stood in silence for a while, Weiss chimed in softly "When did you..."

"First notice I had a crush?" Ruby asked back.

"Yeah" Weiss said not making eye contact with Ruby.

Ruby paused to find the words "I guess it was maybe around the time we were at his village, they way he smiled at that little kid during the festival, I found myself honestly... well it's embarrassing but..."

"You pictured yourself smiling at the idea of the two of you having a kid?" Weiss asked still looking off to the side hiding a telltale blush.

"It's stupid and childish I know, that's what your going to say right?" Ruby said

"No, No I wasn't, I think it's cute to be honest..." Weiss looked at her and said with a smile before they both went silent for a few moments.

Ruby broke the silence "So when did you first notice?"

Weiss thought and smiled at the moment. "I think it was right before we went to help you guys at the docks... the day he went missing... I had passed out during a scuffle from exhaustion, when I woke up, he was right there taking care of me, the dolt went and bought me lunch and everything..."

"That's a bit weird you know, I mean you told me about the robot you fought but..." Ruby chimed in.

"Well, I think it was because, it told me that he really cared, he could have left again, I had just learned he was a Dust Eater and I kinda felt like he was still a bit scared of me... but he didn't leave me, he sat with me there, making sure I was safe for a couple hours... I can't say anyone was there for me the way he was." Weiss said not making eye contact again.

"So, you mean not like a paid servant, or like a distant parent, but actually cared about you?" Ruby asked putting two and two together.

"I'm really kinda jealous of your family Ruby, I used to dream of what it was like to have a family that saw me as more than an asset to be used..." Weiss said folding her arms around herself.

Ruby unexpectedly pulled Weiss into a hug "Hey you have all of us, your almost a sister in a way!" Ruby said loudly.

Weiss found her self laughing at Ruby's forceful hugging "Okay okay, I understand okay?!"

After Weiss managed to squirm out of her grip they both saw Jaune and Yang walking back towards the pair in the distance, both of the girls could see the tense and serious looks on Jaune and Yang's faces.

"Looks like bad news" Weiss said.

"Oh yeah... I also don't see Blake..." Ruby said.

"Welp lets go take care of them!" Weiss said confidently.

"Sounds good, Rival." Ruby said smirking at Weiss.

"Right back you, Rival." Weiss said with her own smirk.


	34. Chapter 34

**Man this was one of those chapters that just flowed right off my finger tips, I normally have been having to write in bursts or struggling with segments here or there, but I just started writing this one and suddenly I had 3200 words on my doc file.**

 **I might have helped that work had me working on training for most of the last day or two, so I had plenty of time to brainstorm what I wanted to have happen this chapter. Technically speaking as far as V2 was concerned, this is basically chapter two covering the events of the episode "Best day ever" even if I've now split those events across two days of story time. I still haven't covered the full events of that episode as I'm, as you can tell filling it out working in parts of (one of) the running story arcs for this volume that i'm tacking on, which is Jaune being initiated into the conspiracy. Your also going to tell which parts of this made me giggle the hardest to write. I have more to say, but i'll save it for the end of the chapter.**

* * *

It was only one day letter when Jaune was called upon late at night, he cursed under his breath for not keep his phone silent, the message simply said "Come" from Ozpin.

Jaune turned took a second to make sure the girls were all sleeping. Weiss was close to the edge of her bed like she was about to fall out of it. Jaune gently nudged her back closer to the middle of her bed before she fell out, and looking at her sleeping form with a smile, brushed a bit of hair out of her face. Jaune then then grabbed for his hoodie and as taking advantage of his Dust Sight tip toed through the dark room. His enhanced vision enabled him to see with only slight difficulty as he walked past the full sized mirror in the room and for the first time in a while, he paused and got a look at himself.

The first thing he noticed is that in the months he had been here, is that his previously rail thin body had given way to a decent amount of muscle tone, he also noticed that his hair was growing out to the point where it was almost getting in the way of his face, and his once baby face'd complexion had given way to a decent amount of stubble that was begging to be taken care of.

"Your a mess Jaune" He said quietly to himself in a way his father would have said if he saw him now. He reached over in the darkness as he looked at his frayed black hooded sweater and pulled it over himself, slipped on his shoes and left the room taking a last precious glance at his team to make sure they were sleeping.

Jaune continued to rely on his dust sight to navigate the halls rather than the flashlight of his scroll, even if was at the behest of the headmaster, one simply did not sneak out after hours at Beacon...

It didn't help that Jaune was pretty sure that, the headmaster would prefer to keep this meeting secret. Jaune noted as he quietly walked just how damn quiet the halls were tonight, normally he'd hear students in the other dorm rooms talking, snoring, or doing other things students at the school really shouldn't be doing at this time of night.

As he walked he felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise, and a sense of paranoia kicked in, as the saying went, it was quiet, _too_ quiet.

Jaune's eyes shot as he _smelt it_ before he saw it, Hard light dust, his dust senses served him as he rolled on the balls of his feet as a short glowing teal blade of hard light dust almost stabbed him in the back, with and elbow strike he clocked his attacker in the side of the head causing it to stumble a half step before steadying itself and immediately went back on the offensive slashing at Jaune with it's weapon.

"Yeah you would pick the time where I came out unarmed!" Jaune shouted as he found himself being pushed back by a series of narrowly dodged and parried strikes "How did you manage to get in the school to attack me I wonder!" He manged to get a look at his attacker, whoever it was, it was thin, and wrapped completely from head to tow in rags and clothes to hide it's appearance from him.

Jaune caught his attacker by it's blade wielding wrist and was about to backhand his opponent when he noticed the blade vanish and appear in it's other hand, Jaune with barely a split second to react, aborted his strike and threw his arm up to block the strike as the blade sliced through his hooding and gave him a nasty burn on his arm.

Jaune, having lost patience with his attacker at this point, leaned around the outside of it's next swing, palm striking it in the arm to knock if off balance, and with a single motion, shifted his right arm into it's full scaled state and punched his opponent through it's back and out it's chest with a spray of sparks and the sound of scraping metal. as the clearly metal husk of his opponent fell to the floor with a clang.

"A Robot?" Jaune said as he clenched his burnt arm. Jaune grabbed at the cloth rags on the robots face and tore them off revealing that his attacker was little more than a school training drone.

Jaune then sighed out as his dust senses picked up on more hard light dust sources approaching him through the halls. "That would be three more of you..."

Jaune broke into a sprint, if he was going to get jumped by three of them it would be on his terms, as he ran he quickly called Ozpin.

"Running late Mr Arc" he heard the smug voice of Ozpin say into his hear

"Cut the crap Headmaster, your siccing drones on me, is this some kind of test?" Jaune said into his phone as he ran

"I did tell you we were going to train you." Ozpin said in a tone that Jaune pictured had a smirk on his face. "Good work on the first one, that was a level 7 training drone, that was roughly compatible to a first year student at this school."

"What about the other three?" Jaune said keeping his voice down as he felt the dust signatures closing on him.

"We wanted to extrapolate the skill of the trio that attacked the fall maiden, we calculated them at being about level 20, but we couldn't extrapolate their weapons, so we had the drones randomize their arsenal for this session" Ozpin said casually.

"Level 20! Are you mad, that will kill me!" Jaune said knowing all to well, that a level 20 drone would be at least on par with a expert level, or elite level huntsmen.

"Oh no, I reassure you it won't, we have full safeties on, it won't kill you." Ozpin said "But it will _hurt_."

At that point the three drones, not even bothering with disguises struck from three directions at once. Jaune had just enough time to see that one was wielding a war-hammer, another a pair of one handed scythes, and the third a long spear.

Jaune curse under his breath and made his stand.

* * *

It would be hours later before Jaune was allowed to return to his dorm room, the actual fight only lasted about 2 minutes, he would focus on one drone, only for one of the others to flank him and pummel the tar out of him. By the time they were called off, Jaune suffered, as Ozpin explained "No less than 24 strikes that would have been fatal in a real battle"

Jaune thought back to the conversation he had with Ozpin about the battle "What was the point of that, just to show me how outclassed I am?"

"It was actually." Ozpin said mater of factually.

"I wasn't even armed!" Jaune shouted "I might of had a chance if I had a weapon!"

"Mr Arc, I have no doubt in my mind, that when the enemy attacks us, it will be on their terms, we need to be ready to fend them off in defense of the fall maiden with what ever we have on hand." Ozpin stated directly to the boy as he twirled his cane.

As pissed off as he was, Jaune couldn't argue with him. "So what, now that you kicked my ass your going to train me to be able to win that fight?"

Ozpin's grin fell from his face "I will be honest with you, I don't know how much time we have left, but I know that the golden moment for the enemy will be the Vytal festival."

"That's not enough time sir..." Jaune said with a tone of defeat.

"With the training I plan on putting you through, assuming you survive it, you will be ready Mr Arc, to take down the gods themselves if you must." Ozpin said patting Jaune on the shoulder. "Tomorrow night were going to start training you in a battery of different weapon types, I want you to be able to pick up and fight with anything in a pinch."

Jaune just watched Ozpin walk off as he felt the overworked body screaming at him demanding him to find his bed and sleep in it.

* * *

A couple hours later Jaune felt himself being shaken awake, his exausted eyes woke up to a pair of light blue eyes looking back with a look of concern "Hey sleepy head, you okay?"

Jaune sat up trying to ignore his painfully tired body "Y-yeah, did I miss breakfast or something?"

"No, but I was wonder why you apparently got up last night, chnaged into your street clothes and then went back to bed." Weiss said raising an eyebrow at him

Jaune looked down and saw he was wearing his street clothes and thinking on his feet answered "Oh, Uh I woke up cold last night, and well you know how I don't normally sleep with a shirt on so, I must of pulled my sweater on."

Weiss tilted her head "And your boots?"

"And my boots" Jaune said not missing a beat.

Weiss stood aside as Jaune got up to grab a quick shower with a puzzled look on her face.

"Something bugging you?" Yang said sitting up in her own bed looking at Weiss, Blake was sitting up as well

"He's normally the first one up every morning." Weiss commented.

Blake still rubbing the sleep from her eyes mumbled out "I heard him get up and leave for a while last night after receiving a text on his scroll, and when he came back he looked like he was pretty tired."

Yang and Weiss exchanged glances as Yang spoke up "Did Jaune sneak off last night for a hookup?"

Weiss cringed "Wow, lets not even joke like that, I know a few girls around campus have things for him, but if he did that, the only girl I'd seem him doing anything with is Ruby."

Yang laughed "Yeah that's true it'd be-" Her face went white for a second "Oh god your right!"

Blake finally said something "Or his phone went off because he programmed a reminder to himself, and he went off to train, or jog or something."

Both Yang and Weiss glance at Blake, and both said some variation of "Right, yes, that's what happened, that makes sense!" not that either girl was entirely convinced of that

Jaune arc it seems, was destined to survive another morning at least.

* * *

After the team had finished getting cleaned up and settled in for breakfast, Ruby and her team arrived in the dining hall, Ruby was looking particularly tired for some reason that morning and greeted them all through a heavy yawn.

"Morning everyone" Ruby yawned out.

Weiss raised and eyebrow as she glanced at her more stoic than usual looking team leader as Ruby sat down on the other side of him.

Yang caught the unspoken implication as well "Long night Rubes?" She asked him directly.

"Yeah I had some late night projects I was keeping tabs on." Ruby said rubbing her eyes.

"What kind of projects?" Yang said in her best big sister voice.

"Controlled reaction test with combinations of dust attempting to create a consistent result..." Ruby said not missing a beat.

"Packing bullets then?" Weiss asked her.

"Something got packed last night" quietly mumbled Blake prompting Yang to elbow Blake in the ribs.

Jaune chuckled a bit while quietly sipping coffee, more than likely out of amusement at the joke than the implications.

"So what were you doing last night Jaune, you were out kinda late last night as well?" Blake asked Jaune

"I was minding my own fucking business" Jaune said without missing a beat as he drank his coffee as the rest of his team looked at him in awe of his response.

"Okay then..." Blake said.

The others took Jaune's less than subtle hint for what it was and started to began to settle in for breakfast occasionally chitchatting amounts themselves. before they were interrupted by a loud voice calling out to someone in particular.

"Blake and her friends! There you are!" Came the voice of Sun as he walked up to the team. "I was looking for you guys I wanted to introduce my friend N-"

"Neptune!" As Jaune stood up and walked over to the blue haired youth "You son if a bitch!" he shouted out as he clasped hands with Neptune as the pair flexed at each other.

"Arc!" The blue haired boy shouted back "If I knew Beacon's standards were this low, I would have applied here too!"

Sun looked just as surprised at the rest of the combined teams as the two seemingly old friends greated each other.

"Dude, how are your folks man!" Jaune said loudly

"Not bad, I mean my sister just had twins, but the babies are healthy and all!" Neptune replied back waving his hand animated.

"Nice, I'm happy to hear that, the caravan needed new blood in it right?" Jaune said.

"Well yeah, Venus told me to say hi for her if I saw you, how about you introduce me to your friends, it sounds like you met my partner Sun already!" Neptune said.

Yang spoke up "Well I'm yang, I'm on his team! the quiet girl next to me with the book is Blake!"

Ruby spoke for her self as well "I'm Ruby Rose, that's my partner Pyrrha, and my other teammates Ren and Nora" she said as Nora waved with a smile.

Neptune's eyes met with Weiss's at a glance "That must make you Jaune's partner, of course he'd get lucky and get a cute girl like you miss..."

"Weiss, Weiss Schnee" Weiss said hiding a slight blush at the handsome blue haired man's advance's.

"Weiss _Schnee_ " He said said suddenly leaning back to Jaune and whispering "Dude, a word?"

Jaune said "Excuse us both for a second." He said as he was dragged off by Neptune.

Sun "So, that's my best friend... what do you guys think?"

They all looked at each other, Yang stiffled a laugh at a thought she had. Weiss in particular just looked confused.

* * *

Neptune dragged Jaune to a quiet spot in the reception hall "Jaune, dude, seriously!"

"I didn't pick my partner, the school said I had to partner up with the first person I saw." Jaune said

"And the first person you saw was the granddaughter off the asshole that _genocided our species!?_ " Neptune said in a loud whisper.

"Basically yes, I mean she's cool, she even met my mom." Jaune said which earned him a look of utter shock from Neptune.

"You brought a Schnee to meet your MOTHER?!" Neptune shouted in disbelief "And she's not dead right now?"

"Well my Mom liked her..." Jaune said with a shrug "She's alright once you get to know her, I mean I saved her life, she saved mine, she sleeps in my bed sometimes an-"

"Back up, your sleeping with her!" Neptune asked.

"No... I said she slept in my bed, as in fully clothed." Jaune said putting his hands on his hips.

"Well that's a relief considering you already have two kids now, I didn't think you'd be so quick to have more." Neptune said.

"So Venus's twins were mine" Jaune said with a smug grin.

"They are the caravan's kids, you know the rules, you just donated your Genes." Neptune said patting Jaune on the back.

"Well you will have to at least tell me how they are once in a while." Jaune said with a smile

"Oh I will believe me. Now stop changing the subject!" Neptune said back putting a hand on Jaune's shoulder and looking at him with a serious expression. "One question... does the Schnee know?"

"Know what?" Jaune asked.

"That your a Dust Eater you idiot!" Neptune said.

"Nep, she knows, it's not like our people are subtle in our own village." Jaune said.

"Well... I really don't like this man, I won't be her friend or anything, and I'll try to resist the urge to bury her ass, but I'll trust your judgment Jaune. Don't make me regret it!" Neptune said sternly "We should head back before they start to talk."

"I agree, lets go!" Jaune said leading Neptune back the others.

* * *

Jaune and Neptune arrived back to the two teams as they were all standing up to leave the dining hall, ruby walked over and handed the still warm cut of coffee back to Jaune which earned her a casual one armed hug from Jaune back.

"Sorry everyone, I had to bring Nep here up to speed." Jaune said before finishing his cup.

"Yeah sorry everyone, we had to talk a few things out, we don't see each other often." Neptune said back

Yang started to pester him immediately for details about Jaune, the others save for Weiss and Ruby seemed to turn their attention to the rapidly overwhelmed Blue haired boy as Ruby looked over at Jaune and with a commanding voice said "Jaune take your shirt off."

Jaune was taken aback by this "Wait what? Why?" as he noticed that Yang was glancing at the the pair and even Weiss taken back at the request.

"That hoodie as a tear on the sleeve, I wanted to swap hoodies with you so I can mend that one after class." Ruby said pointing out that she was wearing one of his hoodies. The thought occurred to him that she did that so often than he was pretty sure most of the school thought that the _over-sized boy's hoodie_ was part of her kit at this point.

Jaune started to comply as he saw Ruby looking directly at the tear, Jaune realized it was from when he found himself forced to block that hard light training blade last night, as the blade must of torn into his hoodie. "Ruby I swear I don't know what I'd do without you some days"

"Well you really do need to take better care of yourself." Ruby said as she took off her hoodie and unrolled the selves on it before handing it to him.

Jaune handed his torn hoodie over to her and pulled the one she just handed over to on. Ruby inspected the tear "How on earth did you manage this Jaune?"

"Uh, caught it on a nail I think, I didn't think much of it." Jaune said hoping the obvious fib wouldn't be caught.

It didn't escape Blake's notice, but she seemed on the surface preoccupied with Neptune and Sun.

"Jeez Jaune, you tell me if this happens again okay?" Ruby said as she rolled up the sleep to hide the tear.

Weiss finally finished picking up her Jaw from the floor. "Okay that's enough, lets get to class _partner_."

Jaune finally took notice of the time and called his team to start making their ways to classes, Ruby did the same as Sun and Neptune split off from the two teams. This would be in retrospect, the most normal part of this day.

As just beyond the horizon, Atlas was approaching.

* * *

 **Awesome, so you finally get to see one of the many, many bullet points on my list of "Things I want to have happen in this fic." In the for of Neptune being revealed as being a Dust Eater as well as Jaune. Also revealing that Jaune knocked up his sister. I sat on that one for most of the V1 chapters, and I thought it would be interesting to write out how, well casually the two Dust Eaters would treat it, as for them, it wasn't something that happened as an accident, or as part of a long term relationship, but to just try to rebuild a dying race. I want to play around with that idea, as well as Neptune's character changes in later chapters. But for now, thanks again for reading, and I'll see you next time.**


	35. Chapter 35

**So this update is kinda late, I'll get more into the why of situation below the chapter, but for right now, I kinda want to take a moment to address a theme that seems to be going under the radar in the last few chapters. and that would be Jaune's mental state in the story.**

 **Up to now, Jaune has been under incredible mental strain at the school due to various events around him, his father becoming a terrorist, his mother losing a leg, the loss of two sisters. That would weigh heavy on people. Under the surface, I have been writing Jaune with another theme in mind, a sort of low key depression that affects how he handles things. I had been laying a few hints of this hear and there, Jaune for example has not been taking proper care of himself, letting his facial hair grow out, and his hair getting longer for example. He's also demonstrated a lack of care for what happens to him personalty in a few places in the story to this date. I decided to be less subtle about it in this chapter than in previous chapters, just to see if he comes more off as a typical Fanfic emo kid, or as someone battling with feelings he doesn't fully understand and chooses to push forward despite it.**

 **I mean, that's what hero's do right? Push forward despite the odd's and overcome obstacles laid out in front of them? but if it comes off as over the top in this chapter, let me know and I'll scale it back down to where it had been before moving forward. Like I said, I have more to talk about at the end of the chapter, but that's for the end of the chapter. It has nothing really to do with the story itself, and talks more about outside factors affecting my ability to get chapters up, and honestly you could skip it if you want. with that being said, until next time.**

* * *

It was late in the evening, Jaune stood in the atrium staring down the teal glowing eyes of one of the schools many training drones, Jaune's arms felt heavy from swinging them, his body ached with minor burns and bruises that his Aura struggled to keep up with.

"Honestly, I'm starting to think the school should just throw a few dozen of you at the Grim and see what happens..." Jaune muttered under his breath.

The drone responded by cycling through a list of pre-programmed weapons and fighting styles settling on a simple long sword and took a ready stance before charging at Jaune, Jaune blocked the drones swing and went for a straight punch with his own Katar, only for the drone to catch his arm with it's free hand and push it aside leaving Jaune wide open for it to kick Jaune in the stomach and ram it's sword into his chest.

"Spar time till fatal injury due to destruction of heart: 12 seconds" The Drone said in a monotone deep mechanical voice.

Jaune stepped back rubbing his chest, the hard light constructed blade didn't actually cut into his chest, but it still hurt being hit by it. Nearby Ozpin stood watching Jaune practice with the drone.

"Again." Ozpin said in a detached tone.

Jaune resumed a fighting stance, just another sore spot for a long night, that had been attempt twenty eight to fight and defeat the drone. Jaune watched the drone cycle through it's random weapon listing landing on a simple Tonfa weapon.

Jaune sighed and charged again...

* * *

Hours earlier, just as the day was winding down, Jaune and his team walked through the courtyard of the school, they had, as a group, decided to spend some time outside to relax from a rather Hectic day.

"So are you going to tell us about Neptune?" Weiss asked in a deceptively friendly manner.

Jaune just shrugged his shoulders, the haze he had been struggling with since the morning never quite shook itself off, and he was only quietly thankful that Glynda had not called on him for combat class.

Yang just slapped Jaune on the back "Hey, you better throw us a bone here or were going to _speculate_ on your _relationship_ with him."

Jaune stopped and glared at Yang "Seriously?"

Yang smiled "I'm picturing that you were th-" Yang was cut off at this point when her mouth was covered by a heavily blushing Blake. "Lets not finish that sentence Yang" Blake said.

"Blake, are you letting her read your books again?" Jaune said, sounding a bit more like him, but still tinted with layer of exhaustion.

"Just... Just tell Weiss already or we'll never hear the end of it." Blake said.

"Good lord I got all three of you dog-piling me about this now?" Jaune sighed out.

"Yes you do." Weiss chuckled "Now spill, what's the story between You and Neptune!?"

"Think of him as a childhood friend..." Jaune said folding his arms.

"Is that all your going to give us?" Weiss said also folding her arms.

"Also remember when I told you how I might have kids out there?" Jaune said with a faint blush

All three girls were in his face with wide eyes and attentive looks on their faces, they spoke as one when they said "Yes?"

"Well... Cut the Might part out of that sentence... and it was with his older sister..." Jaune said not making eye contact.

The three of them took steps back away from Jaune in shock... none of them said a word for a few moments until Yang asked "So your saying you knocked up his sister?"

"Yeah, as it turns out, just found out this morning." Jaune said in a sort of dismissive way.

"Jaune, that's pretty major, does this mean you have to leave school or pay child support or.." Weiss said as she became increasingly frantic.

"No, that's not how it works." Jaune waved off her concerns "The caravan raises any children born in the caravan as their own, and unless I wanted to join the Caravan, I don't have any rights to claim them under our people's laws..."

"That's rough man..." Yang said as she thought about it.

"That's what happens when your species is dying out Yang." Jaune said as he kept walking. "Hell I might have half siblings out their for all I know from before my parents got married"

The rest of the group fell in with Jaune as he kept walking. "Are you okay though?" Asked Weiss.

"Yeah I'm great, I did my part..." Jaune said in a distracted manor.

"Yeah I mean I get that bu-" Weiss cut her self off as the sound of jet engines raced across the sky drawing the eyes of the group upward as a pair of what looked like military jets raced by over the school.

"Those were..." Jaune started to say as the pulsing drone of large engines also filled the air.

Weiss looked off in the direction of the sound as a flight of large airships started to appear over the treeline. Jaune would count 6 ships, one large ship, he guessed a flagship, one that looked like a carrier, and 4 smaller escort ships.

"What in hell are those?" Jaune asked out loud.

"That... looks like General Ironwood's personal Airship and escort fleet!" Weiss said with a hint of excitement.

"Why in the hell is Atlas sending a fleet to Vale?" Jaune said, his voice wavering as he spoke. in his pocket his Scroll vibrated as he received a message.

* * *

"Why in the hell did you bring an entire fleet to Vale?" Glynda shouted at James Ironwood as they stood in Ozpin's office, Ozpin quietly laid his scroll down having just sent a message to his latest initiate in the conspiracy.

"Glynda, it was not my choice to make, in light of the _sharp increase_ in acts of terror against Atlas holdings and property in the borders of Vale, I was not authorized to leave the homeland without military escort." James barked out in reply.

"Still, you understand this will make what was supposed to be a more clandestine meeting, far less so." Ozpin stated.

"Officially, I'm here under the invitation of the Kingdom of Vale to assist in putting an end to the Dust Eater terror cell operating out of Vale, and bring order back to our two kingdoms..." James said to Ozpin.

"Is that to imply that your Kingdom lacks the confidence in Vale to handle it's own affairs?" Glynda barked out an agitated reply.

"It is the truth that we have far fewer issues with Dust Eaters and Faunas terrorists in Atlas than Vale has..." James said to Glynda in a measured professional sounding tone.

"Fantastic, but none of this is important at the moment... James did Atlas intelligence learn anything about the Fall Maiden's attackers?" Ozpin said as he stood up trying to bring the meeting back to order.

"No... And it's not difficult to imagine that Atlas would have little intelligence on something that doesn't officially exist to most people outside of this ro-" Jame cut himself off as the door to the headmasters office opened.

Jaune poke his head in. "I apologize Headmaster, I got word you wanted to see me?"

"Yes Jaune, come in." Ozpin waved the student in "Please continue James."

Ironwood stopped and paused as the tall unkempt young man entered and stood next to him. "I take it your the Student Ozpin was bragging about? the one with the Potential to be our new Maiden's protector?"

Jaune said with a worn out but confident tone "I suppose that would be me yes."

James Ironwood looked at Ozpin. "Is he aware the responsibility were putting on him? The kid looks like he'll collapse in a stiff breeze"

Jaune scoffed "Stiff breeze better be the name of the main gun of that rust bucket floating over the school."

James looked at the younger man and shook his head "Anyways, to answer the rest of the question, no, we are no closer to learning who the people who attacked the Fall Maiden are, then we were before I put the Atlas intelligence service on the case."

"If I might ask, was the Fall Maiden even attacked on Atlas soil? Atlas never struck me as being very outward facing in light of internal problems they have had over the years." Jaune chimed in.

"A fair question, and observation, but no, she was attacked while in Mistral, after she left Argus, which you might be aware has a sizable Atlas Military base nearby." Ozpin spoke up.

"I have a sister who's a huntsmen out of the Argus area, if you want I could ask her to ask around for us." Jaune said

"I don't think so, the fewer people that know about this the better." James said in a commanding tone.

"We already had another associate of ours, Qrow, already looking into that angle." Glynda said to Jaune.

"Right..." Jaune said defeated and trying to hide how overwhelmed he is at the moment.

James spoke up "The kid does bring up a good point, the group that attacked the Fall Maiden had to have had training to do so, might be worth checking with Leo in Haven to see if he had heard anything, it also didn't help that the Spring maiden went missing out that way as well."

Jaune looked shocked for a moment "Wait, we have a missing maiden?"

"Concern yourself with your current role Mr Arc" Ozpin chimed in. "For now I want you to focus on getting yourself ready for your future role, James, if you'd be so willing to use the resources you have on hand to ensure that the upcoming tournament goes off without a hitch a-"

"So one of the main reason's I'm here." Ironwood interrupted

"And try to see if the opposition has any ties to the White Fang in the area..." Ozpin added

"I might be able to help with that... if your all willing to turn a blind eye to a few things..." Jaune states sheepishly.

"Like?" Glynda asked.

"Well one of my team members carries a grudge against them. I'm also sure Ruby's team will also want to look into them as well in light of recent events... I can gather Intel for you guys under the guise of supporting my teammate in their own personal vendetta against the Fang." Jaune said with an unusually cold and calculating tone.

"I couldn't help but notice the obvious benefit this would have for your team as well." Ozpin asked.

"Did you expect me to not want to help my team out, I am the leader after all."

James, Glynda and Ozpin exchanged glances, Glynda was the one to speak up "Just don't do anything that will make the school look bad, or endanger your classmates."

Jaune shrugged "No Promises, but I'll try."

"Alright, well good Meeting, Mr Arc, please update me if your team decides to perform any independent activities so I can make it a point to have security turn a blind eye, and we will talk again later, dismissed!" Ozpin stated as everyone got ready to leave.

Jaune was the first out the door.

* * *

a little while later in another part of the school, Weiss, Yang and Blake were all gathered in the library with Ruby, whom they dragged along as well under protest, the four of them under the pretense of playing a board game, wasted no time as they all began to voice their concerns.

"So we all agree Jaune is acting off?" Weiss said.

"I don't think I've been told to mind my own business more times in a single day than today" Blake said. "It's also weird how quickly he left after the airships arrived."

"He has been worrying me a bit yeah" Ruby said.

"I agree with Blake that he's hiding something from us, and I don't like that one bit." Yang declared

Weiss sighed "Of course he's been raised almost his entire life to keep secrets, so i'm not sure we can coax the answer out of him by just asking him..."

"You said that you heard him get up in the middle of the night and not return till close to early morning?" Yang said to Blake.

"Yeah, and it was pretty clear he came back tired." Blake said

"I still can't believe you thought we were... Doing things... Yang!" Ruby added with an embarrassed blush on her face.

"Well your going to discover boys eventually, and that day is going to cause me to start getting gray hairs Rubes." Yang said in reply.

"So what do we do? do we keep an eye on him? he won't just tell us if he's asked." Weiss asked.

"I'll keep an eye on him..." Ruby said to the team "I mean I'm his best friend, I might be able to get him to let me in..."

"I'll help you then" Weiss said "I do need him to clean himself up before the dance anyways..."

The four girls nodded in agreement and started to actually play the game they brought with them. None of them noticed the blonde boy that was in the next isle over doing "research"...

* * *

Moments later Jaune found himself stalking the halls feeling the weight of the dark haze that had been affecting him as of late. He knew he had a damn good reason for not wanting to tell the others about his meetings with Ozpin. But knowing the others were now questioning him as well troubled him greatly. He found a good wall to lean on and just let his brain rest.

 _"Well this is a fine mess I got myself into..."_ Jaune thought to himself. _"Now I just need to think how to get Blake to allow me to help her out with the White fang, while trying to make it so I don't have to reveal that I got into a conspiracy with Ozpin, an Altesian general, and several teachers to bodyguard a mostly dead girl hidden somewhere on the campus."_

Jaune blew out a feeling of doubt and an overwhelming mental pressure he felt at the idea of this, he also couldn't shake the dark mood he had been in since they go out of patch, it was bad enough that he almost didn't catch the trio that was speaking to him.

Jaune shook it off and asked "I'm sorry I didn't catch what you said?"

The girl with black hair and a striking pair of orange eyes repeated her question with a disarming smile "I was asking if you knew where the guest dorms were, the three of us are a team from Haven who just arrived today, and were a bit lost."

Jaune shook his head for a bit. "Yeah, uh, your on the wrong end of campus, head back down that hall to the other side of the Atrium and you can't miss it."

Jaune took note of the gray haired man and the green haired woman behind who he had guessed was the leader as she spoke up again "Oh I see, Thank you... I'm sorry I didn't get your name."

"Jaune, Jaune Arc... first year." Jaune replied finding himself lowering his own guard.

"My Name is Cinder, Cinder Fall, and this is Emerald and Mercury my teammates." Cinder said putting on a warm smile for the young man she was talking to. "It's a pleasure to meet you, maybe we'll run into each other again?"

"Maybe we will Cinder" Jaune said with a polite smile.

As the trio of students walked off towards the guess dorms Cinder thought to herself _"So that was Julius's boy... I can see us turning him to our side... with some persuasion that is..."_

* * *

Back in the present Jaune dragged himself back to his knees holding his stomach from where the drone just pummeled him the floor with the drones summoned great hammer weapon.

"Spar time till fatal injury due to shattered rib cage and multiple punctures to the lungs: 20 seconds" the Drone said as it took a step back.

In frustration Jaune punched the floor and stood back up and took a ready stance. he had been at this for hours, and this was the longest he had been at it. that was his thirty second attempt, and like the thirty one before it, it had ended in another painful loss.

Off to the side, he could hear Ozpin say "Again!"

Jaune forced himself into a ready stance, maybe attempt thirty three will be the charm.

* * *

 **Okay, I'm going to create a bunch of dead lines here so you can click off if you don't want to hear about another Fan fic writer complain about his life t so bear with me.**

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 **Still here? Okay! So, I'm not going to really beat around the bush, I have been pretty slow to upload chapters as of late, I know at one point I was posting two to three chapters a week, and now I got slightly over a week at times to post one. It is kinda embarrassing to mention this, but it's because I've been having to do extra side activities in my spare time to earn extra income to keep my family happy. Which has cut into my writing time quite a bit, and I'm often doing so much extra work, sometimes as overtime at my job, or doing Amazon Mturk jobs, that I often barely have the energy to do more than play video games, or more often than that, just watch a couple YouTube videos before bed.**

 **Honestly? I'd rather be writing, I enjoy writing, it lets me get idea's out there, and I just don't have the patience to sit and do surveys for 10 hours for 10 cents a survey just to be able to make sure I'm hitting all the bills on time. I'm been exploring options to set up some kind of tip jar, but from what I have been reading, that's a real legal gray area, and I'm think is not allowed by the website itself, but I'm open to reader feedback on the idea, Shoot me a PM if you have any experience in that department, tell me how you went about it, or call me an asshole for even thinking it, I don't mind, I'd love to here your thoughts, Just don't comment on the story about it, I'll delete any non story related comments, I'd prefer the comments to be about the story, not my bitching about being broke.**

 **Anyways, until next time!**


	36. Chapter 36

**And here we are with another chapter of Dust eater in the Bag. This one took a few nights to write out since I'm still adjusting to the first of a couple schedule changes in my life, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I have noticed in this chapter that I'm kinda starting to enjoy putting my own slight spin on things, and I will go ahead and say now, that I am absolutely tossing the canon version of Cinder's plan straight in the trash for being as crap as it was and am coming up with a new motivation and goal for her to be in Beacon.**

 **Cinder has been fun to write the few times I've done it now, again with some character tweaking of course, because in show I didn't get how she managed to fool the cast into thinking she was a decent person when every word she said dripped with a cartoon level of villainous insincerity. Also your going to see, that, I'm writing the villains as almost being a team of sorts, maybe not the tight brothers in arms that the heroes are, but are at least able to work as a group and not back stab the shit out of each other at every turn.**

 **And yes, the shipping wars have invaded this story as well, I guess you can't write Rwby with out a ship or two, but to real honest, even though I kinda have a plan for what I want to do with the story all the way up to the end of V6, I still don't quite know who I see Jaune getting with, if anyone, it'll be fun who I end up finalizing on in the end.**

 **In any rate, as always, thanks for reading, and I'll see you next chapter!**

 **OH! One mote thing, Keep and eye out for something... different from me in the next few days or so on here. I think you might be a bit surprised.**

* * *

 _Two weeks ago..._

Julius arc raged, as he entered the room where several of his fellow Dust Eaters and more than two dozen White Fang members performed various tasks around their latest in a series of temporary bases. Everyone stopped and took notice. Julius threw the Tablet video player had had been previously handed and stormed to the desk where Cinder, Torchwick, and Adam were discussing their next moves.

"They allowed a _fucking Schnee_ into the settlement!" Julius shouted in a booming voice that cause those around even, even Cinder, to rear back.

An unmasked Adam rubbed the temple near his ruined eye. "I warned you against watching that video from your home, we all knew it would only serve to piss you off my friend."

"Oh, no Adam, I'm not pissed, Seeing that my wife actually invited the little bitch that seduced my son away from us to sit at our table and break bread with my family, didn't piss me off... it _fucking infuriated me into a blind rage_ Adam!" Julius shouted.

"Julius, were all friends here, hell I think even Neo is starting to warm up to you, so if you don't mind using your indoor voice, we can get some work done here today." Roman said in a less than gentle tone.

Cinder shook her head "This is going to be a problem, we can't allow Ozpin to somehow capitalize on a having a Dust Eater and a Schnee on his side..."

"Then we kill the Schnee girl, I mean half the table is in favor of that already." Adam said glancing at Julius who in his anger nodded in agreement.

"We do that, and we will only push Julius's son more into his camp, suddenly his motivation will avenging her gruesome death." Cinder said with a bored tone. "I mean I don't know about you, but if we could drag your son to our side, maybe set him back on the right course, then that would only be a win for us right?"

Julius grimaced with the though _"Not to mention putting me in your debt..."_ before saying "I'm not going to allow you to turn my son into a pawn for your schemes."

Cinder leaned forward, putting on a warm smile and tilted in a way that just happened to give Julius a glimpse of her cleavage. "I'm not trying to turn your son into a pawn, I just don't like seeing what this is doing to you Julius. We are playing for the same team after all."

Roman scoffed in the back not at all convinced, Adam grimaced, Cinder kept speaking. "I mean we don't necessarily need him on our side fighting on the front line do we? We just need him to see the truth about the Schnee family?"

"Assuming I have any reason to trust you Cinder, what are you proposing?" Julius spoke with a barely contained anger.

"Well I think it's time we convinced your son that the little Schnee girl is very much as ruthless as the rest of those monsters she calls a family." Cinder said with a disarming smile.

Even Adam shook his head. "I doubt that the Arc boy is going to be convinced to turn on Ozpin just because you smear his girlfriend." Adam said with a hint in thinly disguised disgust.

"Oh well I wasn't planing on doing that, why would I when I can let the girl speak for herself." Cinder said as Emerald in the corner walked towards the table and took on the appearance of Weiss Schnee.

"I'm told I can be quite convincing as an actress after all" Emerald said perfectly mimicking Weiss's voice.

Julius couldn't help but laugh "Oh this is rich. What other tricks do you have for us to sell the deception."

It was Roman's turn to speak up "An absolutely embarrassing amount of stolen Altesian weapons and equipment..."

Julius smiles a half crazed smile "I think I'm going to enjoy this..."

* * *

In the present Jaune had completed another nights training, he had been training for almost a week with Ozpin, and the physical signs were starting to show. Jaune had taken a few rough hits that night and Ozpin called his training an hour early to allow the boy some rest.

As Jaune tried to sneak back into his dorm and unwelcome sight awaited him.

Weiss sat at the edge of her bed wearing little more than her night gown, it was clear she had been up for a while still and wore an unhappy scowl on her face.

Jaune quietly stepped into the room taking his sweater off and hanging it off the edge by the end of his bed and say down to pull his boots off.

Weiss whispered "Are you not going to explain where the hell you've been?"

Jaune only muttered quietly "Late night practice."

Weiss glanced over at Jaune he leaned over and saw a bad bruise on his side near his hip. "I don't get it, you don't need to go this far, why are you training this damn hard all the sudden?"

Jaune leaned back with a groan giving up on getting his boots off, Weiss helped out by pulling them off for him, unintentionally giving Jaune a clear view of the bare skin of her back that he tried not to stare at. "It's... Not something I can explain..."

Weiss just stared at him directly "You need to figure out a way to explain it to me Jaune, I'm not letting you off the hook, this is, what the fifth night straight you've gone out like this?"

"I guess so..." Jaune said seemingly not willing to say more

"You got you do better than that, and don't think you can tell me to mind my own business, I'm not fucking Blake, that won't work on me." Weiss said quietly.

"No one said you were fucking Blake, I didn't think she was your type." Jaune quipped

"Seriously? Jaune... You... you mean allot to me, your not just a partner to me, your one of my best friends." Weiss paused to turn Jaune's head to look into her eyes "and I don't have allot of those..." Weiss said with pleading tone in her voice.

Jaune felt a serious twinge of guilt, it's not like he wanted to keep secrets from his team, but he understood the risks of letting them in on this. "I'm sorry... It's..."

Jaune had a thought cross his head, he was only bared from discussing the Maidens and Ozpin's group, he was allowed to talk about why Ozpin was putting him through the training to begin with.

"I.. I don't feel like i'm pulling my weight as part of the team..." Jaune admitted, he was surprised to hear the words himself, did he really feel this way?

"I don't believe I'm hearing you saying that Jaune, your one of our strongest members, you have a raw power that we could only dream of as a Dust Eater." Weiss pleaded with him.

"But that's all I'm packing, raw power, I don't have your skill and finesse, I don't have Blake's guile, and I don't have yang's training in martial arts, I'm strong, but I can't win a fight against someone who knows what their doing!" Jaune whispered in a harsh self agonizing tone.

"That's not true and you know it..." Weiss said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"If were to say, turn any one of you into a Dust Eater, and have us fight, what would happen? what almost happened when we found that Atlas robot a couple months back?" Jaune muttered out as he stopped making eye contact with Weiss.

Weiss shifted over to sit next to Jaune on his bed "You saved my life in the forest, and when I broke my sword, you helped me make a new one, are you going to keep beating your self up because we almost lost to that robot?"

"I can't always use my power, there will be situations where I need to be able to fight like a Man, not a Dust Eater." Jaune said in a dejected tone "and I'm not honestly sure I'm getting any better in that department."

"Well isn't that where we come in? We can't all be perfect for every situation, that's why were assigned to teams Jaune..." Weiss whispered to her partner. She however could tell by looking at him that she wasn't getting through to her partner. With a sign she said "Okay lay down, you need sleep, we got a late start tomorrow and I want you to get as much sleep as you can."

Jaune yawned and layed down slowly favoring the bruise on his side, Weiss winced and laid down next to him drifting off quickly her self...

* * *

Jaune yawned in Combat class as he watching Ren and Sky go at it, normally this would excite him seeing two classmates sparing, but today he just wasn't able to feel it. Ruby sat off to his right and she was clearly into it, shouting and cheering for Ren to win. To his Left Weiss sipped on her coffee and was just going over some notes she took in her Grimm studies class which she was still lagging in.

Jaune figured she'd have a few questions over lunch. That was fine he was going to have some Dust studies questions to bounce off of her as well.

When the match came to an end, Jaune didn't see who won he put his plan into motion. He had noticed that over the last few days he was not chosen to have a match with any of the other students, he suspected that was due to his training with Ozpin, which he no doubt knew that Glynda was well aware of, and figured she was intentionally keeping him from sparing.

But Glynda couldn't say no if he volunteered right?

Glynda pulled the first name at Random, Pyrrha Nikos. "Ms Nikos if you would steps down while I'll see who your opponent will be?"

Jaune stood up and raised his hand "Nah I need to stretch my legs, I'll spar with her."

Glynda and the rest of the class were surprised to say the least, no one really volunteered to take on Pyrrha, No one was stupid enough to. "Mr Arc I... Very well then, if that's your choice."

As Jaune stepped down he choose to ignore the confused expressions of Weiss and Ruby. who were exchanging glances at Jaune's rather out of character choice,

Jaune stepped on to the fighting stage, trying to pump himself up for the fight, get the adrenaline going, but finding that he just simply couldn't force himself past the comfortable numbness that had been plaguing him in the last week. He hopped in place and stretched out, trying to work out his already sore muscles.

When he saw Pyrrha doing the same, like she honestly needed to against him, he chuckled and thought _"Oh your mocking me then, okay, lets see how this goes"_.

Jaune popped the blades of his Katars out and took a ready stance, when Glynda called them to action he was the first to spring forward to close the gap, Pyrrha seemed surprised at first as Jaune struck forward with a quick Jab with his left arm that caused Pyrrha to have to step back to keep from being struck in the face by Jaune's blade. Jaune quickly followed this up by continuing to close the gap and take a wild haymaker with his right arm that Pyrrha raised her shield to guard against, but left her slightly open for his next move which was a straight kick and caught her in the side and caused her to stumble back.

"Whoa Jaune when did you-" Pyrrha said as she rolled back to get some distance and swung out at Jaune with her shield catching him in the side sending him off balance and forcing him to have to re-steady himself.

 _"Damn, that was my one chance to end this quickly, here comes the pain now!"_ Jaune thought as Pyrrha rushed him shield in front of her and her sword shifted into spear mode, Pyrrha thrusted her spear out ahead of her, Which Jaune was able to deflect easily enough, but left him open for her to bash at him with her shield.

Jaune had been hit with quite a few of those shield bashes when he was going against Ozpin's drones so he figured out how to counter it, as Pyrrha's shield came at him, before it got up to full momentum, he dug his heel in and lunged at the shield striking it with his shouldr and full body weight, killing it's momentum and causing Pyrrha to yelp in surprise. Jaune then grabbed on to the shield forcing it aside and forcefully kicked Pyrrha in the stomach sending her off balance and into a roll. and catching some surprised gasps from the other students in the audience.

 _"Stop toying with me!"_ Jaune's mind screamed out, he just knew Pyrrha was taking it easy on him and it was annoying him to no end, he rushed in with the intend to smash his Katar into Pyrrhas face when he felt a pull forcing his arms off to the side, and then he caught a shield to the face causing Jaune to see stars.

 _"She just used her Semblance"_ Jaune thought as he stumbled back trying to shake off the pain. He saw Pyrrha charging in at him spear ready to strike.

Jaune threw his weapons down to prevent her from using that trick again, and as her spear got close he swatted it aside, he felt his blood pumping, he felt the pain in his shoulder and head. as Pyrrha swung with her shield to try and buy distance he gripped on to the shield and forced it aside leaving her mid section exposed. Jaune closed the gap and violently headbutted Pyrrha snapping her head back and followed it up grabbing the sides of her head and pulling it down driving his knee into her face.

Pyrrha wasn't done yet, as she came back up, she used her semblance to polarize her shield and willed it to swing into Jaune's side, she wasn't in the position to care where it went, and where it went was into the side of Jaune's head, immediately knocking him aside as the second strike to his head that match discombobulated the Dust Eater.

Jaune stumbled as the color left his world and heard Glynda call it. "I think that's enough, your both close enough to the red for this to be safely called a draw, a great performance from both of you."

As Jaune shook the stars out of his vision he glanced at board, sure enough both of them were just above the red line, Pyrrha walked over to him and held her hand out to help him up. "Great Job Jaune." Pyrrha said with a hint of surprise.

 _"Bullshit, you held back, I know you did!"_ Jaune thought as he smiled and let Pyrrha help him up "Yeah you too!".

Both fighters took seats as the stunned crowd including a few of the students from other academies looked on. a few of them had lost a bit of color in their face.

Jaune sat back down next to Weiss and Ruby who's eyes were both wide. Ruby said to her friend "Man you did good down there today!"

Jaune just muttered out a slightly disappointed sounding "Nah she was holding back."

"Are you sure about that? She didn't look like she was holding back." Weiss said

"Yeah, she is a champion level arena fighter, half of that is making the fight look good, I mean I refuse to believe I jumped up that high in skill in a week." Jaune said as he tilted away his head from Ruby who was for some reason poking around the side of his head. "Ruby if i'm not bleeding don't worry about it."

Ruby frowned "I agree with Weiss though, that was a heck of a fight either way."

Jaune putting on his fakest smile looked at Ruby "Got put on a good show for the crowed huh?"

Weiss was unconvinced though...

* * *

Late in the evening, Jaune was woken up by his Scroll buzzing in his hand. he looked down on it and read he single world message from Ozpin "come". Jaune groaned as he started to sit up only to find something holding him down, he looked over and Saw Weiss had somehow managed to pin crawl in bed with him and was holding him down. There was no way he would be able to get out of bed without waking her, his entire body was in protested.

Jaune clicked the reply button on his scroll and typed out a simple reply. "I'm unable to leave at this time without alerting my team."

Jaune laid there wide awake waiting for Ozpin's reply... it came quickly enough "Understood. get some rest."

Jaune looked over at Weiss's sleeping form, sighed and tried to go back to sleep.

It didn't come easily.


	37. Chapter 37

**So before I get started, I just wanted to mention that last chapter I mentioned that I had a thing brewing that I was going to kick off after chapter 36 was posted. Well I'm proud to announce that since that chapter I launched another story called "A Quiet and Monochrome world." Which is a very diffrent beast that this one is, if your looking "Yet another god damn High school AU" with the twist of it being that it takes place in the late 1990's, then go check it out when you have the time, I don't think I cant directly link it in a chapter, so just find it in my profile. The first two chapters were already up and chapter 3 is being posted at the same time this is being posted.**

 **I didn't have allot to say about this chapter except that a good chunk of this chapter was written by the seat of my pants, I guess I wanted to give Ruby and Jaune some time to interact since they honestly don't spend alot of time together casually for being "best friends" and all, and I wanted to fix that, I didn't plan for it to take two thirds of the chapter though, so enjoy that for what it is, and I'll see you all next chapter!**

* * *

For the first time in days, Jaune didn't wake up exhausted and in pain. he still however woke up before the rest of the team. He noticed that at some point in the night Weiss has moved over to her own bed again which was a sign to him just how how deeply he slept the night before.

As he sat up and stretched, he popped his neck and checked his scroll. He noted a message from Ruby who asked if he wanted to go into town for breakfast since neither team had plans for today.

Jaune quietly wondered how Ruby knew that his team had no real plans for the day, but decided to ignore it and replied 'Sounds good, Just got up, need shower first'. before closing his scroll and getting up so he could clean himself up for the day.

* * *

Ruby and Jaune caught the first bullhead back to town that morning, Jaune made it a point to sit by the trash bin just to play it safe as his stomach churned .

"Airsickness?" Ruby asked as she sat directly next to him.

"I am clearly not meant for flight..." Jaune muttered out. "but at least the Airsickness tablets are working... Mostly... Sorta..."

Ruby rubbed his back and cursed herself thinking _'Aw dang it, how could I forget something this basic, I should have made him some tea or something before we left'_ Ruby's thoughts then took a slightly different turn as she kept rubbing his back in the hopes it would somehow magically calm his stomach. _'Seriously though his his back could be used as a grind stone considering how solid it is.'_

"So what did you have in mind for breakfast? Please nowhere that has pancakes, Nora has me permanently burnt out on those..." Jaune said with a chuckle

"I know, I mean don't get me wrong Nora is awesome, but how does she not get tired of them?" Ruby said with a smile and a slight laugh.

Jaune had a chuckle at the whole thing himself before his face turned sour for a moment.

"What's up?" Ruby asked Jaune wearing a look of concern.

"Well I know I should know better than to mix work and play but..." Jaune paused to find the words "It's about Blake..."

Ruby raised an eyebrow with the thought of _'What about Blake!'_ before asking "Go on..."

"I get the feeling she's going to want to go after the White Fang again..." Jaune said leaning forward.

"You mean the same White Fang that almost killed the four of us? That White Fang?" Ruby said with a not all that happy tone. "So are you looking for a way to talk her out of it?"

"Honestly, I'm trying to figure out how to get her to let me come along." Jaune said deadpanned.

"Your out of your mind! Why would you even want to go after them again?" Ruby said getting a bit pale as she remembered Jaune's father trying to force her to choose who was going to die at the docks that one fateful night.

Jaune picked up on this and put an arm around her and pulled her into a hug. "Sorry I know that wasn't a great time for you... But I'm worried that if I don't at least try to offer Blake help, she's going to end up going alone and getting hurt or worse..."

Ruby Couldn't help but enjoy the warm feeling that she felt as Jaune kept an arm around her. it was... comforting to say the least. "Do you think your going to need my team to help out as well?" Ruby said with a bit of a nervous chuckle.

"Nah, Honestly I don't think I can pull strings to sneak out two teams of people if I can even pull this off." Jaune chuckled out.

"Pull strings? With who?" Ruby asked.

"It's not important" Jaune said seemingly obvious to where his arm was around Ruby.

Ruby sighed "You know your kind of a jerk Jaune."

Jaune finally moved his arm back to his own lap "How so?"

"I think you've been keeping secrets for so long that you forgot that you don't have to anymore with us." Ruby Said looking at him with as serious of a face as she could muster.

Jaune tensed up and Ruby caught onto it instantly, Very few people had Jaune figured out quite as well as she did. she put a hand on his shoulder. "But, I also know that you mean well right? I mean I'm sure there are things that you feel are best left unsaid, that some secrets need to be kept right?"

"Yeah..." Jaune said as he looked at the floor.

"Yeah..." Ruby said as she leaned forward and looked at him. "But I can tell your not well, you have that same look that my dad gets when he thinks Yang and I are not looking."

Jaune looked at her and blinked as Ruby kept talking. "I'm good at taking care of people, I've had to take care of my dad more than a few times in my life you know. Yang as well, I guess I kinda became sort of a second mom, or maybe third mom? Whatever... But I can tell when people are hurting. Right now, your hurting Jaune."

Jaune rubbed his neck "I guess you might be right, I feel like I have the whole weight of the world on my shoulders, and yes there are things I can't tell anyone that I know." Jaune looked out the window at the small fleet of airships floating above the area of the school.

"The White fang won't stop at robbing Dust shops and blowing up trains Ruby, if that was their plan they wouldn't need Roman Torchwick, they wouldn't need my father either." Jaune's said as his face turned serious. "I would be lying if I wanted to help Blake for her sake alone, I need to know why my dad is involved in the White Fang's operations in Vale, Why are they working with Torchwick? Who else are they working with?"

"You feel like knowing all the answers would help you keep your team safe?" Ruby asked Jaune

"Maybe..." Jaune said defensively.

Ruby leaned back and sighed. Jaune stayed leaning forward thinking about what Ruby had said. Ruby just thought to herself _"This might be harder than I thought then."_

* * *

Slightly later in the morning, Weiss and Blake had made their own way into Vale, Blake had came to her earlier that morning wanting Weiss's help with her own investigation into the White Fang's activities.

The two girls were both heading out towards the CCT tower in Vale so Weiss could make a call back to her home and talk to someone at the family company.

"I don't like this Blake, why do I need to do this?" Weiss asked Blake.

"Well think of it as a personal favor to me, but I kinda feel like I'd be able to figure out what the Fang must be up to if I knew what they were stealing" Blake said to her teammate.

"Yeah, I just hope I can get out of having to explain why I haven't called out to my family lately." Weiss said as the pair entered the Vale CCT tower. "I still want to know why we had to make the call from here and not from the campus hub though."

"The school monitors the calls from the school hub, not to mention the number of hubs it would need to bounce through to get to the tower, there is a chance that one of those hubs were compromised by the Fang" Blake said. "It's better to have as few links in the chain as possible here."

Weiss clicked her tongue "I... Admit I didn't think about that to be honest."

"What did you think the White Fang only brought in sword wielding thugs? Or that all battles are just fought with solders? Adam used to say that 'Information wins battles far more efficiently than guns and blades do'" Blake said as she walked along side Weiss.

"I guess I never thought about it that way." Weiss said as she walked up to the front desk and quickly got herself a terminal.

Meanwhile not to far away, Emerald and Mercury under appearance of a pair of regular citizens thanks to Emerald's power of illusion watched the pair walk deeper into the tower.

"So she's going to make a call home? She's making this allot easier for us than I first thought it would be." Mercury said.

"Oh yeah, this trip is going to help us really sell the story were going to craft about her all that much easier." Emerald replied back to Mercury.

* * *

Jaune and Ruby had just finished up a now late Breakfast and were busy walking off their meal as they pair found themselves lost at a street festival that was being held nearby. Ruby was barely contain her excitement, while Jaune approached the situation with a slight indifference.

"I wonder whats the occasion for this festival? Don't these things normally have some kind of special occasion behind them?" Jaune asked Ruby as the pair walked.

"Who cares Jaune, does it honestly mater for you to have fun?" Ruby said smiling and looking around practically dancing.

Jaune shrugged "I guess I just like knowing" he said as he casually looked a group of people standing around a Carnival game involving hitting a pad with a hammer as they tried to hit the pad hard enough to send a weight into a bell.

Ruby saw him looking at the game, and the prizes they had and smiled "Hey, you think you got what it takes to win one of those big stuffed teddy bears?"

Jaune smirked "Yeah I might be able to pull it off." As he cracked his knuckles and walked to the game.

The Carnival barker called them over as they approached "Hey little red, you think your boyfriend has what it takes? Hit the bell and he can get you a bear!"

Jaune slapped some Lien on the counter "Bring it on" and walked toward the game area.

Jaune stretched his arms out as a carnival attendant struggled to hand Jaune the hammer.

"Knock it dead Jaune!" Ruby shouted at him. Jaune took a second to get a feel for the hammers weight. before eyeballing the distance between him and the Pad.

"Any day now, she won't think any worse for you if you can't do it with those skinny arms?" the barker shouted at Jaune.

Jaune simply grinning as he felt electricity fill his arms and legs. He started a jog from a sizable distance back from the target. As he charged the pad, he started spinning the sledge hammer in one hand as he revved up the momentum of his strike, once got close enough he went into a cartwheel flip to finish closing the distance. The world seemed to slow for him as his dust fueled powers enhanced his reflexes and he focused on the target. Once he was close enough he grabbed the Sledgehammer with both hands mid flip, and brought full weight of the sledgehammer down on that mother fucking pad like it owed him Lien!.

Ruby was laughing out loud at Jaune's showing off his skills as the weight slammed the bell as hard as it could almost taking the bell clean off. When she heard the Ding she gave Jaune a cheer loud enough to turn heads of passing carnival goers.

Jaune walked back to the guy twirling the hammer and handing it back to the Attendant "I'm actually a lot stronger than I look. And my friend her will take the dog with the red cape."

The slack jawed attendant handed Ruby a Large brown stuffed dog almost the size of her. As she fell back in line along side Jaune. Jaune teased "You know you didn't correct the guy when he said I was your boyfriend."

Ruby almost fell over "Oh crap your right!?" Causing Jaune to laugh.

After the laughter died down a bit Ruby quipped "You know Nora would be so proud of you right now."

Jaune pumped his arm with a sarcastic "Yes!" causing Ruby to laugh at him again.

"Well lets see now, got to make this even" Ruby said scanning the games with the large Stuffed dog on her back she paused, stopped, and grinned at what she saw.

"Uh oh, I know that Grin Ruby..." Jaune said as she walked over to a game with a riffle and targets lined a solid distance back.

"Step right up and hit a target, the closer to the middle you get, the better the prize you get, get three bulls-eyes and you win the biggest prize!" the barker called out.

As the pair walked up the barker said to Jaune "Trying to win your girlfriend here another stuffed animal?"

"Oh no it's her turn this time" Jaune said to the barker as Ruby slapped some lien on the counter.

Ruby loaded the paint-balls into like the riffle trained professional she is and carefully checked the sights. Jaune quipped "You know those things never shoot straight right?"

"Oh I know, and I think I got this one figured out." Ruby said with a grin as she fired off the first shot and hit the first target right in the bulls-eye dead center. Ruby quickly fired off the other two shots getting back to back bulls-eyes on the other two targets as the barker looked on in shock.

"This gun is off by about 2 degrees at 30 feet, I almost had to aim off the target to even hit it, and he'll take the white panda bear with the armor" Ruby said to the barker.

Jaune accepted the massive stuffed bear that was handed to him with a smile and turned to Ruby "Okay you scare the shit out of me when your near guns, you know that right."

Ruby smiled wide "I'll take that as a complement then!" as the pair walked off both with their "hard" earned carnival rewards. Jaune checked his scroll and saw a missed call from Weiss. "Well I better call her to see what's up." Jaune said to Ruby as he phoned her scroll.

Weiss picked up on the second ring. "Hey, I'm not sure how interested you are in tracking down the White Fang, care to fill me in?"

"My interest is teetering around an eight our of ten right now why?" Jaune asked into his scroll as he looked at Ruby.

"Blake and I are both in Vale, you want to meet up with us for lunch?" Weiss asked into his ear.

"I'm currently walking with Ruby so if this is supposed to be team only I might have to wait till this evening" Jaune said slipping back to his "Work voice"

"She can come to if she's interested... I Guess." Weiss said in a tone that confused Jaune a bit.

Jaune looked at Ruby as he muted the mic on his scroll "Weiss is asking if you want to be part of a sit down regarding the White fang... I mean if your not okay with it then..."

"Tell her I'm game." Ruby said

Jaune un-muted his scroll "She's game."

"Okay meet us at the diner over near the plaza." Weiss said before she ended the call.

Jaune sighed out and pocketed his scroll "Well back to work I guess."

Ruby started to giggle. "Hey, you did it too!"

Jaune looked at her confused "Did what?"

"Forget to correct the guy back there when he called me your girlfriend." Ruby said with a laugh.

"Oh god dammit people are going to talk..." Jaune said with a laugh.

Ruby smiled at him "It's good to hear you laugh you know, you don't do that much these days."

Jaune shrugged it off "Yeah, I guess I don't."

"Can I confess something? I kinda knew about this festival, I figured you needed to get out and just be Jaune for a bit. Not a team leader, not a..." Ruby made sure no one was near them "Dust Eater... You needed a morning to just be Jaune."

Jaune smiled "Yeah, I think I did Rubes... Thanks..."

The pair of Huntsmen, Giant stuffed animals and all, kept walking to meet up with the rest of the group.


	38. Chapter 38

**So I got to say, after writing a couple chapter of** _"A Quiet and Monochrome World"_ **This week it is nice to come back to a story in which all the characters can just talk normally. Which I suppose is the point of AQMW in the first place. You know, to show how difficult it is when you can't talk? I know that it might seem like I'm putting a bit more focus on my other fic at the moment, and that is because I am to a certain extent. Dust eater is now 38 chapter old and doesn't need to be as carefully nurtured to get it off the ground as much as AQMW does, I mean I have several file docs of planed future events and pages and pages of notes for this story I don't have for my other one yet. So it has been getting a bit of love right now so I can cement the world more.**

 **But I'm still going to at least get a chapter or two of this out a week when possible. AQMW doesn't quite require as much mental energy for me to write (yet) so I can work on that after a hard night of work really no mater how tired I am, this one requires me to be generally awake and coherent to write out well and with a minimum of plot holes at this stage.**

 **Either way, the drama is going to get a kick in the balls this chapter, hope you enjoy, and I'll see you all next chapter.**

* * *

Jaune and Ruby must of made for a strange sight as they sat down with the group of Yang, Weiss, and Blake. Both of them didn't take the time to Store the massive stuffed animals they had won each other earlier in the day. and were hauling them on their backs when they showed up.

As the group sat around a largest table the could find, partially out of the need to had enough space for the Stuffed Dog and the Stuffed Bear to have seats as well, questions were raised.

"So, Jaune, Partner, Explain please?" Weiss said staring deadpan at her partner.

"I currently do not feel the need to." Jaune said as he leaned on his arm at the table. "Seriously, you called us over here because you had something you wanted to talk about."

Blake chimed in "We did, but I feel like I want to know what the story behind the stuffed animals are now as well."

Yang just shrugged. "I like watching you squirm so, hey, whatever."

Jaune sighted out "Gods why do I put up with you all..." while rubbing his forehead. "So Ruby invited me out to breakfast this morning. While we were out we stumbled on a a Street Carnival with some comically easy carnival games and we won each other giant stuffed animals."

Yang added her own observation "So what your saying is that we interrupted your date to talk business?"

Ruby spoke up. "It was not quite a date Yang, just a couple friends hanging out."

Jaune chimed in "What she said."

Weiss didn't look amused but held her tongue. Yang tried to get the group back on task "Okay so focusing on the reason we all got called out here, what did you two learn?"

Blake leaned on the table "Mostly what the White Fang have been stealing as of late, the long and the short is, a lot of Dust, a lot of weapons, some Atlesian Knights, and something called a Paladin."

Jaune raised his hand sarcastically "Okay, I'll ask, what the hell is a Paladin?"

"It's a bipedal war machine that's about 16 feet tall, piloted by a single person and has enough firepower to level a city block." Weiss said with a bit of concern on her face.

"A Vale city block?" Jaune asked

"An _Atlesian_ city block." Weiss clarified.

"Crap..." Jaune sighed out "I'm guessing you figured out where the Fang was transporting all of this stuff as well?"

Blake chimed in "Do you even need to ask? Where has the White Fang been concentrating all of their resources as of late?"

Jaune leaned back in his seat and spared a moment to gaze up at the ceiling _"Dammit, between the Schnee's, the White Fang, my own father, and whatever this god damn threat that Ozpin is training to fight against I am really starting to regret ever wanting to be a Huntsmen..."_

Ruby knew what the look on Jaune's face meant and tried to hide a frown that was creeping on her face.

"Okay Jaune, your our team leader, got a plan?" Weiss said.

Jaune took a deep breath closed his eyes and a few seconds later leaned back forward wearing his game face "I'm going to need to make a few calls later on today. But I should be able to keep campus security off of us. After I do that we sneak out as a team spend an evening gathering information on the Fang and try not to get caught in the process."

"Okay, who exactly are you going to call to get us around security?" Weiss asked as she stared intently at Jaune.

"Don't worry about it, I know a guy." Jaune said.

"That's not entirely reassuring Jaune, we need to keep the number of people involved in this to an absolute minimum." Blake said looking at Jaune with some slight annoyance.

"Okay so you want us to what? Sneak out of our dorm room, get across the entire campus, get on a Bullhead after hours, and get into Vale? Do you have a pilot in your back pocket your keeping secret from us?" Jaune said leaning back on his arm looking at Blake.

"I just don't want to jeopardize the mission by getting outsiders involved." Blake said looking around the table. "I want to know who you plan on contacting to get assistance first?"

Jaune pinched his nose while speaking "And I won't be able to tell you without burning that bridge and making this mission impossible."

"I don't like this Jaune, this is getting into some real grey territory here" Yang spoke up.

"Yang, right now, by even planing this out with you guys, I am putting myself into direct opposition against my father. The very same father who's keeping my village from dying to Dust Starvation on behalf of preventing the White Fang from robbing from the same company that put my people in this situation in the first place. Don't talk to me about things not being black and white please." Jaune said never once raising his voice beyond his normal tone of voice.

Weiss chimed in "I agree, we don't have the time to argue about this, we need to trust that Jaune know's what he's doing."

Jaune chimed in as well as if to correct Weiss "We have to trust _each other_ or this is going to fail, Blake do you have any idea's as to where we want to start looking, we'll only have a night to do this."

Blake nods "I talked to a couple people while Weiss was making her call at the CCT tower, I heard about a couple White Fang recruitment rallies."

"Bring a friend in, your not going in alone, and none of us can pass as a Faunus in a pinch." Jaune said directly.

"Maybe once we scout this out we should let Ironwood know about it? Let Atlas sort this out?" Weiss asked.

"That... doesn't sound like a great idea." Ruby half heatedly spoke up having been quiet the whole time.

"I agree with Ruby, their might be a couple Dust Eaters and I won't bring the 'Butcher of the Cornell Caravan' into this if I can help it." Jaune added.

"So we have a plan, when do we do this?" Blake asked the group.

"I'll need time to pull off my part, so lets say tomorrow night if that's an option?" Jaune asked Blake in return.

"They have a rally scheduled for tomorrow yes." Blake said back.

"Tomorrow it is then." Weiss said "Lets get back to the campus and start getting ready for it."

With that everyone got back and started to make their way back to the bullhead station. Jaune was the last to get up. As he watched the others get up, he thought _"Why the hell am I doing this to myself?"_

Jaune didn't notice the pair of young lovers watching him in particular walking off.

* * *

Later that evening, Jaune met up with Ozpin in the usual training hall on Jaune opted to start the fun filled evening of getting his ass handed to him by the training bot, he had to talk to the Headmaster. He had to sneak around a couple janitors to get to him, but they were easy enough to sneak around.

"So it didn't take nearly as much effort for my team to want to look into the Fang again as I thought. " Jaune said as he walked up to the headmaster.

"So when do you plan on beginning this little extra curricular task of yours?" Ozpin said with a certain level of mild interest

"Tomorrow, so I'll campus security to look the other way." Jaune said directly in reply.

"It'll be done, but I sense that's not the only thing bothering you." Ozpin said to his pupil.

"It's not! Why in the hell does Atlas need a gods damn giant robotic combat suit for? Kill more Dust Eaters? Is that all i'm doing here? Helping Ironwood kill my people?" Jaune said almost shouting.

"You know your not here because of Ironwood, your here to eventually be the protector of the woman we choose to replace the Fall Maiden." Ozpin said directly.

"I'm trying to keep my eyes on that goal sir." Jaune sighed out "I... have to admit I have reservations about confronting my father though, are we sure that the White Fang are working with this enemy group?"

"What does the facts as you currently know them tell you Mr Arc?" Ozpin asked Jaune.

Jaune wore a deep frown on his face "The facts tell me that the White fang and their allied groups, are at least working with this group."

Ozpin could read the clear emotional conflict in his students face. "If you like, we could go easy on you tonight, lower the level of the training bot."

"No... Keep it at the normal level, I won't get stronger otherwise." Jaune sighed out as he slid out of his coat and got ready to face down he first of a plethora of spars against the drone tonight.

"I would like you to use this." Ozpin said handing him a straight double edged long sword. "I did mention I had planed on training you in other weapons and styles if you might recall?"

Jaune tentatively took a few swings with the weapon "I suppose you did now that you mention it."

"Then lets get started, I want you to warm up, so i'll drop it down to level 12 to start." Ozpin states.

Jaune got ready taking as careful of a stance that he could.

* * *

By two in the morning Jaune was headed back to his dorm room, although he didn't opt to hold on to the long sword despite Ozpin's insistence that he was a natural with it, he did at least relent to storing it in his locker for future training sessions.

As he walked, he heard voices talking around a nearby corner, he could instantly recognize the first voice as Weiss, the second he wasn't so sure about. Jaune still didn't want Weiss to know about what he was doing up so late so he opted to wait around a corner in secret.

"I don't like meeting up this late, my partner is out wandering the halls right now, I can't afford for him to hear this." He heard Weiss say to the still not known other party.

"Ms. Schnee, I reassure you, he's currently indisposed at the moment with the headmaster, were you able to share what you learned about the Dust Eater's encampment with your father?" Jaune heard the clear voice of Ironwood say.

 _"What the hell is this?"_ Jaune thought as he leaned against the wall gripping his chest.

"I was able to inform my father yes. He said that since we know that the White Fang has stolen a fair number of the our countries Knight class robots, my father said it wouldn't take much effort for us to send a company of them in the direction of the Dust Eater Settlement in Patch." Weiss said to Ironwood with a haughty almost proud tone to her voice.

"I see, we don't send any actual troops, and then we can blame the entire attack on the White Fang attempting to false flag Atlas for the attack." Ironwood said. "Even if we only kill a handful of them, it would still be worth the slight political backlash."

Jaune felt his world spin, was he really hearing this, was Weiss really working with Ironwood to plot to kill his people. The thought crossed his mind _"My gods, I practically opened the door for this, I showed her exactly where our settlement was..."_

Jaune considered striking now, but something didn't sit right with any of this. _"I get why the butcher would be behind this, but why Weiss? She would know I would suspect her instantly if anything happened to my people!"_

Jaune Kept listening in to the conversation. "I need to get back, I don't imagine that Jaune would be out much longer, and I don't want to be awake when he gets back to our dorm room." Weiss said to Ironwood

"I agree, and I need to confer with the rest of our forces in Vale before we take action." Ironwood said as he put a hand on her shoulder. "Your a credit to your country. I'll see you back to your room."

Jaune stood there in numb silence grabbing his chest fighting back hyperventilation as Weiss and Ironwood disappeared deeper into the halls. _"I can't do anything about this yet, I don't have the proof I need to act on anything..."_ Jaune tried to think of this rationally _"Ironwood knew I would be with Ozpin tonight... could that mean he's in on it as well? Are they all in on this?"_

The night provided no answers to Jaune.

* * *

Less than a hour later in the guest dorms, cinder was elated "Well don't you two take the cake! If I didn't know better I would have been tricked into thinking that was really them!" Cinder said offering up genuine praise for her two subordinates.

"It was quite easy for us to sell it once we had done out research. following the Schnee girl to the CCT tower proved to be a benefit, considering she was alone for long enough to make a call home to sell her partner out possible." Emerald said in reply as she leaned on one of the beds. "Besides, after we got done spying on Weiss and Adam's little ex girlfriend, we just knew we had a golden chance to our plan in motion."

"Emerald is leaving the best part out though." Mercury said while sitting on another bed cleaning his cybernetic legs. "We spent some time this evening following around the Arc boy before we put on our little performance, and learned something that ties back to your personal goal."

"Well don't leave me in the dark you two, what did you both learn?" Cinder said to the pair.

"Jaune Arc knows about the Maidens, and Ozpin is training him to be the protector of the fall Maidens replacement." Emerald said with a smirk.

"We can't just settle for turning him on the Schnee's, we need to turn him to our side entirely." Mercury said with a stone cold tone. "He may be the key to finishing the job we were really sent out to do."

Cinder smiled. "Oh we are going to have so much fun with this."

* * *

 **Final thought: Making the bad guys competent has been fun so far.**


	39. Chapter 39

**Little bit of a set up chapter for the big melee next chapter. I mean chapter 40 is a big number, a milestone almost really, I got to do something big for it right?**

 **I have read a few people post concerns that I might be making the villains "to competent". I don't know what to say to that. I personally don't feel like it would be a good story if the heroes are not pushed to the very limits. Also the comment that the villains are "To evil"? Again I'm not sure what your expecting, the bad guys here either directly or indirectly work for a half Grimm immortal who wants to see the Genocide of the the human and Faunas races on Remnant. You tend to find people that follow that kind of person are kinda on the evil side of the spectrum.**

 **In any rate, I do hope you all enjoy the chapter, and I look forward to seeing you all again on chapter 40, where we getting to have one heck of a fight. Till next time!**

* * *

The next evening felt like it came almost to soon, A completely mundane school day, followed by a restful early evening. Jaune stood in wait in a nearby alleyway with a sword on his hip, and his Katars on standby. He knew Blake and her chosen backup Sun Wukong was inside the abandoned warehouse that the recruitment rally was taking place at as the spoke.

Behind him was his partner Weiss looking tense. Jaune could understand where she was coming from. Jaune trusted Blake to be careful but he didn't know what to expect inside of the place. His mind was also dwelling on the Silver haired beauty behind him for another reason. He reflected on what he had heard in the dorm the evening before and hoped, no prayed. that he was somehow wrong about what he heard.

 _"It just doesn't sit right, something about it felt off, wrong, somehow"_ Jaune thought as he watched the doors where Blake had gone in less than 20 minutes ago.

Jaune saw Yang creep over to him "Check it, Blake got a feed going from inside."

Jaune looked at Yang's scroll as the meeting started, he saw a face he was not looking forward to seeing. "Roman Torchwick... Damn." Jaune said to Yang and Weiss.

"Yeah, but we got ourselves a kick ass Dust Eater on our side right?" Weiss said with a smile. as she watched the screen "I don't think they have a lot in there that can take one of you on."

Almost as if he somehow heard them talking, Torchwick took that exact moment to pull back the curtain hiding a large bulky object and reveal that they actually did have something that would put Jaune through the paces. On the screen Jaune got his first look at an Atlas Paladin bipedal combat frame.

"Come one Blake, you can leave now..." Jaune muttered as he felt sweat drip down his brow.

Jaune continued to watch the feed as his hand griped tighter on his blade as Torchwick looked directly at Blake and called her and Sun out.

"GO GO GO!" Jaune said as he hit the ground running. He heard gun fire breakout inside the building and hoped that was from Blake. As he got close he noticed uniformed White Fang guards approaching the building with him.

The white fang guards formed a quick firing line and lined up to take down the Blonde huntsmen. they quickly found themselves thrown into disaray as a wall of ice formed between them and Jaune. Jaune took this opportunity to shift into his true state and charged at the wall with fulll speed. When Jaune crashed into it, it didn't even slow him down and he was on the first White fang Guard with a hammer punch to the face.

Weiss and Yang both split off to take on a second group that was coming towards them and were keeping them supressed with a clever use of Weiss's gylphs and Yangs Gauntlets. Jaune however found himself alone against nine of the White Fangs finest. They were evenly split between taking him on with guns and swords. As one charged him with a sword he deployed his Katars and swatted away the warriors sword swipe before charging his palm with electricity through the fur on his arms and projected a "push" of electric energy into the White fang Solder flinging him back while causing the Faunas to convulse as fell on the ground.

"Okay so the rest of you can start running now!" Jaune said as he charged the next one. The second white fang was good, damn good, Jaune found himself going back and forth before Jaune started to feel bullets fly past him. Knowing that he had to end this fight quickly. he caught his foes's next sword thrust by the wrist, and after shocking the White fang warrior through skin contact. He twisted his wrist violently, causing the warriors arm to snap like a twig. This caused the warrior to drop down screaming before a quick kick from Jaune shut him up.

Jaune then felt a round strike him in the shoulder, he quickly found cover and started to accumulate energy in his hands, the other two focused melee fighters also fell back to their riffle line. "Alright you bastards! One blast is all I need!"

Jaune stepped out of cover, held both of his arms forward as the scales and patches of silver fur began to glow an electric yellow, with a shout a wave of carefully cultivated and harnessed yellow dust electricity flew forth in a fan and shocked the five gun wielding White fang warriors causing an immediate and debilitating shock to their nervous systems and throwing them to hit the ground like someone held a taser to their backs.

Jaune chose to make his move and finish off the last two, however he was stopped when the earth in front of hip tore itself up and formed a wall between him and the last two White Fang warriors.

Jaune froze with his eyes wide, his fears were not alleviated when a spiked ball on a chain whip sailed past his head and embedded into the new formed earth wall.

Jaune turned as the owned of the weapon pulled the whip back to himself and coiled it back up in a single fluid motion, the man stood just as tall as Jaune, a fellow Dust Eater with Light brown scales and hair that was cut short and carefully hugging the horns that crept over his brow. The dust Eater stood shirtless wearing a fur-lined sleeveless open coat

"Isaac?" Jaune asked. "I-I didn't expect to see you here old friend."

The Dust eater known as Isaac simply sneered at him "Still standing with our enemy are you?"

Jaune held both hands out in front of him "It's not like that, I'm not trying to stand against my dad, Only the White fang!"

The sounds of combat and explosions were heard in the background as Weiss and Yang were quickly dominating their opponents. Isaac ignored them as he twirled the end of his chain whip in one hand. "Our people made our choice to side with the White fang! Your the one in the wrong here traitor!"

"Isaac, stop this, we were friends back home, we use to play together with Rose!" Jaune shouted an impassioned plea to his one time friend.

"Only if you renounce Beacon, and the humans who reside in it and come with me will I stop!" Isaac shouted

For a brief moment, Jaune honestly wanted to, he wanted to drop his weapons, and walk away from it all, He still wasn't sure what he saw last night, if he really saw Weiss and Ironwood talking or not. Jaune unsheathed the sword he had ignored on his side and pointed it at Isaac. "I'm sorry, I can't do that my friend."

The Dust Eater Isaac stretched out his whip in his hands "So be it then!"

* * *

While this was going on, Weiss and Yang huddled behind a burning vehicle. some White Fang warrior had chucked a fire dust grenade at the pair and it was all they could do for the brief moment to get undercover.

"How are you holding up Yang?" Weiss shouted.

"Well I'm getting a bit low on shells, might just have to start punching them out soon, you?" Yang shouted back

Weiss made it a point to eject the ice cartridge from her gun-blade and locked a new one in as she also ejected and loaded a new magazine of rounds into the gun portion of her weapon. "I'm not bad to be honest."

Yang smirked "Well we got them on the ropes, once Blake gets her fuzzy ass out here with Sun we can get out of here!"

Weiss shouted "go over the top and I'll cover you, your sister's been packing rounds for this thing so I'm tempted to see what exactly 'Thunderclap' rounds do."

Yang chuckled "Well knowing her, their loud, bright, and leaves craters, so lets hope for the best!" As Yang said this she put her sunglasses on.

Weiss vaulted over the car shouting "Lets find out!" as she shifted her weapon into hand gun form and fired two rounds at a pair of White fang warriors, as the rounds hit them in the chest a loud pop and a flash with a pulse of concussive force knocked them on their asses. Yang was on point as well as she closed the gap between two of them and proceeded to knock the pair of them around with a series of rapid punches before performing a handstand round house to finish them off.

Two more warriors closed in on Weiss swinging swords. Weiss quickly deployed her blade and with one arm behind her back parried back the strikes with trained and expert level precision. when one of them left and opening she quickly stabbed the warrior in the hand and forced him to drop his blade. Weiss caught the blade before it could hit the ground and knocked the first warrior in the temple with it knocking him out.

Her second opponent swung his blade at her in a series of flourished and expert strikes that caused Weiss to sliped into a defensive posture and focus on parrying the strikes with her borrowed weapon. As she parried blow after blow, she switched her gun-blade into it's gun form and when the White fang warrior left and opening she pointed the gun at his chest and fired causing the warrior to fly back and hit the ground hard.

Weiss however was disoriented by her own shot, being close to it left her blinded for a second and her ears rang. Another White fang warrior tried to cut Weiss down but was stopped mid swing by a shotgun slug to the side that knocked him out instantly.

As Weiss finally shook off the disorientation Yang rand next to her and stood back to back with her. Yang shouted "We got them on the run, you think we should just let them keep running away?!"

It was then a Van pulled up just down the street, the side open revealing a group of machine gun toting White fang, and one of them mounting a heave multi barred Gatling canon.

"Okay shit, cover!" Weiss shouted as she and ran for a nearby vehicle to duck behind as the world seemingly started to shatter from a series of concussive air-burst explosive rounds being fired at them from the van.

Yang gasped in horror as one of their own men was caught by one of the round and was effectively pulped by the explosive force of the round.

"Oh my gods! That has to be a war crime somewhere!" Yang shouted.

"I think those rounds are used in Atlas to bring down flocks of Griffons!" Weiss shouted back as rounds tore entire chunks of the car out from around them.

Weiss tried shooting rounds at them from under the car, but didn't have the best view of them wasn't sure if she caught any of them "I can't get a clear shot and if we go out there were dead!"

A voice over their headsets shouted "Leave it to us then!" Yang and Weiss could make out the sound of Ruby shouting as the loud rapport of Crescent Rose cracked in the night sky. on the ground near the a pair of the white fang troopers went down screaming from being hit with shock rounds from Ruby's riffle.

From another direction Nora rushed out of an alley way with her massive hammer in hand, being electrically charged by an electric dust patch on back she ran in and winded up a mighty hammer strike and plowed into the otherwise of the Van with the full force of her hammer almost splitting the Van in half and sending White fang warriors scattering.

White fang warriors that leveled riffles at Nora were surprised to see their weapons pull from their hands on to the ground as Pyrrha made her presence known when her shield struck one Warrior in the back, and reflected off two more. Ren was on top of the rest of them, taking them down with flourish of punches and kicks leveling the White fangs reinforcements.

Yang and Weiss ran to Ren Nora and Pyrrha as Ruby hopped down from her concealed perch. Sparing little time for pleasantries yang said to the others "We need to get inside, Blake and Sun are in there, and they might need our help!"

Nora shouted out "Okay lets go, where did you lose Jaune?"

Weiss said "I'm not sure, but he can handle it for the moment, lets get in there and-"

Weiss didn't have a chance to finish her sentence as the wall to the warehouse exploded out as Blake and Sun flew out of the opening shooting blindly back into the building.

The Faunas pair landed near the rest of the group. Blake just looked at the pair and shouted "Get out of here, they were expecting us!"

The rest of the group looked in confusion as Yang shouted back "What are you talking about? run from what!"

The White fang had answered for Yang as a Paladin broke through the wall near where Blake had blasted out. Followed by a second. Over the intercom Roman Torchwick spoke. "Well well well kids, looks like you played right into our hand!"

Yang looked at them and clinched their fists, as the the group of huntsmen took ready stance for what was shaping up to be a hard fight.

* * *

Jaune landed with a crash onto the hood of a car, and narrowly rolled off to avoid the massive pillar of compressed concrete that slammed into it. Jaune looked over at Isaac as he wiped blood off his cheek.

"Do you see now Jaune, You never had a chance, your team is about to be crushed, and I'm going to crush you!" Isaac said to his once friend.

Jaune pulled himself to his feet, and readied himself for a fight "Not if I have anything to say about it!" Jaune charged Isaac once again. Only one of them was going to walk out of this fight alive.


	40. Chapter 40

**So Wow, 40 chapters huh? That's a number I was not sure i'd ever see in a chapter count for anything I write. This chapter was largely delayed due to writers block on my end and honestly just being a bit more interested in writing the other fic last week.**

 **This chapter also ended up being a bit shorter than I had intended it to be, but that's the side effect of it being a "fighting chapter" which I tend to have end up being shorter just due to how I handle fights in general.**

 **I also realize this puts up about a third of the way through volume two of the series, since "Painting the town" Was episode 4 of a 12 episode volume. That also means that we are officially about to hit the famous dance episodes... I'm going to hold off before I start hitting that content to work out a few snags in the current story. Jaune and Weiss have some trust issues they need to work through after all. See you all next chapter.**

* * *

Ruby's team of Nora Ren and Pyrrha stood alongside the team that was being by her sis Yang. Jaune was missing in action, but with Weiss Blake and Sun it looked like Yang had all the help she needed to take down a paladin.

"Split the Ranks my team will take the left one, your team attacks the right one!" Ruby shouted to Yang as she signaled her team to attack the left Paladin. Both groups split off and battle was joined!

Pyrrha led the strike with her shield out front as their target Paladin turned to face her and fired a salvo of dumb fire rockets from pop up shoulder launchers at the lead girl.

Pyrrha smiled and focused her semblance at the rockets causing them to crash into each other well short. As she did that Nora and Ren ran past her in an effort to charge the Paladin and set it up for a hopeful fall.

Nora stopped short and held her hammer out for Ren. As Ren stepped on it Nora launched her partner airborne at the Paladin who was still attempting to suppress the rushing Huntsmen with a twin linked .30 caliber machine gun mounted on both of it's Arms.

Time seemed to slow for Ren as he floated above the Paladin, he felt as if he had all the time in the world. Using his own semblance on himself to block out all emotions, he sighted down the barrels of his guns and aimed down at the ejection ports where spent shells were being spat out of the Paladin's twin arm mounted machine guns. As he timed his aim with the beats of his own heart he fired a single round from each of his guns at the paladin. Ren watched with satisfaction as a single bullet from each gun went into the shell ejection ports of the paired machine guns hopelessly jamming them both. This caused the next several rounds the gun tried to fire at Ruby's team to Jam in the barrel.

From and outsiders perspective, it looked like Ren had caused the twin machine guns to explode by firing a single round from each gun, and technically they would be right. As Ren landed on the Metal beast should and started firing between it's armor plates, only he would know that looks could be deceiving.

As the Paladin casually swatted Ren off of itself, it took aim with it's rocket launchers and readied to fire a salvo at Nora. As the pop up launchers rose again and readied to fire a high velocity round tore through the launcher housing and the fuel pod of one of the rockets causing one of the launchers to explode, only a single launcher managed to fire a short salvo of rockets off, but even they were scattered and none even flying at their original target. Ruby smirked in satisfaction at her handy work and mecha-shifted her weapon into scythe mode and charged the staggering Paladin.

Nora saw an opportunity and rushed in spinning and building momentum for her hammer as she swung at one of the legs of the Paladin causing it to further imbalance itself. Pyrrha then gave it a forceful nudge with her semblance as causing it to fall on it's chicken jointed "knees".

Ruby uses a burst of her semblance to increase her speed as she flew at the paladin's torso and hooked her scythe into the armored canopy of the Vehicle. Ruby fired several rounds into the canopy of her embedded scythe to loosen up the hatch, before calling out Pyrrha for more assistance.

Pyrrha who was starting to feel the effects of overusing her Semblance called upon it one more time as she fired into the armored canopy to propel her own shots like they were being fired from a rail gun into the latches of the pilots compartment. Once that was done, Ruby with a good solid grip on her scythe and a burst of speed from her semblance pulled her scythe up and away of the crippled Paladin, taking the pilot canopy with her and leaving it's driver completely exposed to a quick drop kicking by Nora.

The Paladin simply slumped over he rest of the way completely disabled. and Ruby's team stood over it in triumph.

* * *

While Ruby's team brought their Paladin down Yang and Blake were rushing their Paladin to try and fell the metal beast as well.

Up to that point Sun had been doing a fine job fending off the war machine by distracting it with fire from his Gun-Chucks.

"We need to restrain it's arms!" Yang yelled out to Blake and Weiss.

Weiss made an effort to close the distance using her gylphs to push herself forward. As she closed the distance she noticed the Paladin they were fighting suddenly shift focus on her and try to slam it's massive arm down on her. she responded by pushing off a glyph to evade a violent end at the last second, then using ice dust to freeze the Arm to the ground.

As Yang rushed at it she caught onto the ribbon of Blake's weapon, Blake had fixed her end into the ground and used the ribbon spinning it over head with Yang's shotgun propelled assistance to increase Yang's speed. Yang let go once she was feeling like she had enough speed to have the desired affect on the Paladin.

Like a stone being flung from a sling, Yang flew at the Paladin and struck directly into it's still frozen elbow joint shearing it clean off. The now Useless limb fell to the ground as the Paladin staggered to the side as it tried to compensate for the shift in the war machines center of gravity.

This was not meant to be as Sun and Blake each Holding on to an end of Blake's weapon looped around the legs of the titan in opposite directions wrapping the ribbon around the legs of the staggering metal beast. both Sun and Blake then called upon their duplicates to create a strength multiplier to lock in place.

Weiss then using her weapon, hurled Ice lances into the back of the Paladin's legs taking out it's ankle servo's and sending it tumbling to the ground.

"It's down, lets go for some style points!" Yang screamed as she leapt into the air and was boosted high into the sky by one of Weiss's gylphs. In an effort to help build her momentum back down, she stopped mid air as her feet touched a second gylph. Blake and sun quickly joined her and grabbed her arms just Gylph readied to act as a lunch pad to help her with a bit more momentum by hurling her back down at the war machine.

Yang When the Gylph activated Yang was launched directly downward at the fallen Paladin, Yang went through a pair of speed gylphs to build her speed to just shy of terminal velocity. Yang then focused her Aura into a protective barrier in front of her to keep herself from pulverizing on the surface of the Machine. When she landed, she landed fist first. followed by the rest of her as she landed in a classic super hero landing post. The results on the Paladin were immediate as the machine broke in half under her fist. the pilot trapped inside the war machine and no longer a threat to them.

As Yang caught her breath she looked at the rest of the team as they ran up to her. She stood up and shook off her bloody hand and smiled "Maximum style points on that one."

Weiss however was looking in the direction she last saw Jaune with a look of worry...

* * *

Jaune rolled to the side hard as a massive slab of concrete nearly crushed him. he fired back with a Flash of electricity in the direction of Isaac only for it to be stopped as his rival Dust Eater swatted it away with another slab of rock.

The battlefield that was once a city street was now a confusing maze of broken slabs of rock and concrete and pillars of earth as the more experienced Earth Dust Eater reshaped the area to fit his needs. "You can't win Arc! Lay down and die like good traitor that you are!"

Jaune switched the sword he was holding to a two handed stance and made an effort to close the distance. Isaac flung his chain whip at Jaune only for Jaune to parry it away.

Isaac wasn't done tough, partially recalling the chain around his arm he flicked his wrist causing the chain to shift direction in a wide horizontal arc at Jaune's head. Jaune managed to duck low to evade the chain as he continued to rush Isaac. As Jaune closed the cap Isaac, knowing the range advantage of his weapon was lost retracted it and wrapped it around his arm and griped a nearby earth pillar willing stone to mold around his arm like a gauntlet.

Jaune fed Electric dust through his arm into the sword and swung it at Isaac as he closed sending an arc of Electricity at his one time friend. Isaac was force into a defensive posture and allowed his rock gauntlet to absorb the electricity that Jaune had released at him.

Now the battle was a close range affair. Jaune hoped this would allow him and edge against Issac's fighting style which was more suited for long range engagements. Jaune went in with a flurry of strikes both with his sword and the Katar in his off hand. Issac parried with the stone covered fist and by flicking out what little of his whip was not coiled around his arm.

Jaune finally struck true with a blow as he rolled around a straight punch thrown by Issac with the gauntlet arm and retorted with an elbow strike he picked up from sparing with Yang. Isaac felt the wind vacate his lungs as he staggered back. Issac uncoiled his whip partially and whipped Jaune in the shoulder causing a light spray of blood to come out of his shoulder as the barbed metal of the weight at the end of the whip bit into his shoulder.

Jaune grabbed the chain and fed his electric power into it sending a current of electricity up the chain into to the arm of Issac how howled out in pain as his whole arm seized up from he current overloading his nerves.

"Fall damn you, Fall!" Jaune shouted as he maintained the current. Isaac through the pain used his free arm and his dust power to cause nearby rock and concrete fragments to fling at Jaune striking him in multiple points, most of the rocks and stone fragments were deflected by his aura but a few larger chunks of stone jarred Jaune's grip on Isaac's whip looseen, freeing Isaac from the electric assault on him.

Isaac's arm was numb and for the time being useless. Seeing few options he rushed the still disoriented Jaune and hammed his stone fist into Jaune's ribs. Breaching his aura and fracturing a couple of his ribs.

Jaune forced to now fight through pain as he tasted blood in his mouth abandoned his sword and grabbed into Isaac's hair whipping his head forward and going horn to horn with Isaac, doing little to the Earth Dust Eater but knocking him off balance for a moment.

Jaune was not entirely sure what happened next, he tasted blood in his mouth, his chest and shoulder screamed hellfire at him. and he felt something wet running down his hands. As he glanced down he saw the blades of his Katar's were firmly stuck into the stomach of Isaac.

Jaune stepped back as he felt the blades slide out of his friend, and watched in horror as the now mortally wounded friend fall to his knees.

"Isaac no!" Jaune screamed as he ignored his pain and caught Isaac lowering him to the ground. "Gods dammit why!? Why did you have to take it this far?!"

Isaac's face was serene as he looked up at Jaune. "Because I'm loyal to my people.. I was ready to die for them the moment I knew I might have to face you tonight..." Isaac coughed and a Spackle of blood came out.

"It didn't have to be this way!" Jaune shouted as tears freely fell from his eyes.

"This was fated the second you threw your lot in with your father enemies..." Isaac groaned out as he futilely tried to stop the bleeding from his stomach. "I made my choice, and you made yours."

"I'm sorry..." Jaune said looking at Isaac. "We were friends once and I just murdered you..."

Isaac held up his hand with his whip "We lost contact with the Patch CCT tower this morning... Your father thinks Atlas attacked our home."

Jaune's eyes shot wide "Impossible!" He shook his head "They wouldn't know where home is!"

"Are you sure?" Isaac said his voice starting to fade. "Think hard about it... and use my weapon to avenge us..."

Jaune reached out and grabbed the whip out of the dying Dust Eater's hand. As he did, he watch the last light of life slip away from Isaac and his arm fell limp. Jaune laid Isaac's body down and folded his arms over his chest before closing his eyes for a final time.

Jaune stood up just in time to hear the second Paladin get taken out. "Isaac... I think I know what your trying to say. But I'm not sure i'm ready to believe it yet." Jaune carefully looped the chain-whip up and hooked it to his belt. "But if it turns out that Weiss really did betray me... I'll fulfill your wish."

Jaune knew there were so many things about that conversation he saw between Weiss and Ironwood that night that just didn't sit right. What were they doing up that late? Why would Weiss even risk a conversation like that in the hall where she knew he might stumble on it?

"How could dad be so sure it was an Atlas attack?" Jaune asked out loud as he walked to meet up with his team, but he knew one thing to be true after this.

"No mater how this ends now, I'm damned in the eyes of my people." Jaune said as he walked away from the battle.

* * *

Jaune eventually met back with with his team at a nearby Rally point. with the Adrenaline worn off all that was left was the pain in his ribs. Weiss was the first person to run up to him shouting his name.

"Jaune you okay?" Weiss asked as she ran up and put and arm around him to held him steady himself himself.

"Yeah looks like police arrived on site just as I was making good my escape." Jaune said as he let a little bit of his weight be carried by the slender girl.

"What happened Man, you look like hell!" Nora shouted out asking Jaune.

"I..." Jaune paused "I ran into another Dust Eater."

Ruby noticed the blood on Jaune's hands. "I'm sorry Jaune"

Jaune sighed as the emotion slid off his face leaving little more than a shell. "We can talk about it another time, we have a transport to catch."

Weiss looked at her partner with a look of concern that she wasn't even trying to hide. "Okay, your the team leader. lets get clear, we can talk in the morning about it."

With that, the two teams split off for the transports back to Beacon.


	41. Chapter 41

The morning after the raid was a difficult one, Jaune watched the news on his scroll over a plate of scrambled egg's and orange juice. The news was of course about said raid as Vale 5 new's Lisa Lavender explained the events of the previous evening to the public.

 _"We have confirmed that several injured White Fang terrorists were found at the scene who were taken into police custody. Vale 5 news have also learned via a source in the Vale police under the guise of anonymity that they also recovered a pair of destroyed Altesian Paladin prototypes that were lost by Atlas in a raid by the Dust Eater Terror cell that was confirmed to have been operating out of the area some weeks back."_

Jaune looked around at the others who were chitchatting among themselves in a more friendly than normal way. Say what you will but nothing makes a pair of teams bond better than combat. Seeing the two teams come together put a bit of a smile on his face. Jaune also noticed Weiss was leaning on him discretely as she talked to Ren across the table.

 _"Don't get too friendly Weiss, I'm still not sure that wasn't you I saw talking to Ironwood"_ Jaune thought to himself as he kept eating. The news report came to the part he didn't want to hear, or at least he didn't want to hear the news's spin on events.

 _"Vale 5 news has also confirmed that the body of a single Dust Eater was found at the scene of the overnight battle, We are unable to at this time confirm if he was part of the raider forces, or working with the White Fang. Investigators are speculating that this could be a sign of cracks forming in the Dust Eater and White Fang alliance that has been the bane of both local dust shops and the Atlesian government in the these last few months. For obvious reasons, neither the White Fang, nor any representatives of the often secretive Dust Eater race have come forward to comment. Nor have either group issued statements regarding last nights battle."_

Jaune rubbed his face in fatigue as he felt the weight of the chain-whip that was hanging discretely off his hip. anyone glancing at it might mistake it for wallet chain at a distance as Jaune had tucked most of it into the large pants pocket leaving only a small amount dangling free. As Jaune mussed over the death of his friend he felt a small hand start rubbing his back. Jaune knew who that hand belonged to "I'm fine Weiss. You don't have to go that far for me." Jaune said quietly to her.

"Maybe I want to?" Weiss said back not actually stopping. "Besides you took the worst beating out of all of us last night."

"Yeah that just goes to show how far I need to go still right? The rest of you got out of that battle with barely a few scrapes, while I got my ass handed to me and barely made it out alive" Jaune said to Weiss. "Did I actually tell all of you how great of a job everyone did last night"

"About twenty times." Weiss mused "Hey I got a question for you, have you been thinking about the up coming dance?"

Ruby's eyes glanced in the direction of Weiss and Jaune hearing this. thinking _"Oh your making your move eh?"_

"I kinda had other things on my mind. Besides your oddly not the first person to ask me about that today." Jaune said before shoving a fork full of egg into his mouth.

Weiss shot a glance at Ruby shooting daggers, Ruby just put on a sarcastic smile and waived politely back at Weiss. Weiss then said sweetly to Jaune "Well think it over, I think you could use a night to take your mind of things. and of course as your partner I would be there to escort you as well"

Jaune just smiled and thought _"Either she's serious or she's buttering me up to cover her ass."_ Jaune quickly finished the rest of his breakfast. "I'll think it over, again your not the first person today to ask me to the dance, so if I go I got to think that over as well. Either way I got to go have a chat with the headmaster so I'll talk to you all later okay?"

Weiss looked puzzled "The headmaster, what for?"

"He didn't say, he just wanted to see me." Jaune said as he started to stand up. "See you all later on?" Jaune said as he started to walk off.

Once he was gone Weiss just turned to Ruby saying "Oh you bitch." in a rather playful tone.

"Early bird get the worm Weiss-cream" Ruby said with a giggle.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Jaune was walking through the main doors of Ozpin's office. Already present was Glynda and General Ironwood. Jaune fought back the urge to sneer at Ironwood as he walked to the table.

"I'm here, whats up?" Jaune said in the most casual tone he could fake.

"Your just in time, I read the report you filed on the White Fang Raid last night" Ozpin said with his typical neutral tone as he he looked at a tablet sized Scroll in one hand and a cup of coffee."The operation was less subtle than I would have liked, we don't typically like to hear about our recon operations making it as the the top story on Vale 5."

"Translation, you fucked it up as a recon job kid," Ironwood added as he lounged in his own seat.

"But I can argue with the results of it as an impromptu strike mission. If we look at it that way, we have ourselves and overwhelming success on our hands. we estimate you and your team put a serious dent in White Fang operations in the area." Ozpin added.

"So what your saying is that your not going to fire me than?" Jaune said flippantly as he pulled up a seat and leaned back into it to get comfy

"Not all all. In fact despite everything said even James here was quite pleased with your teams performance." Ozpin said.

"Well I guess I can sleep easy knowing that Ironwood approves of my actions at least" Jaune said with a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Ozpin opted to sit down, resting his coffee mug on the desk next to him as he continued to talk. For the next few minutes the conversation was mostly logistical notes with some casual banter that didn't frankly interest the young Dust Eater. Jaune did notice something off about Ironwood compared to the night he saw him talking to Weiss.

 _"That's weird I remember picking up hints of dust emissions from his legs that night. But now it's more centered around his torso on his right side."_ Jaune was not sure what to make of it. But Ozpin did say something that got his attention back in full.

"There was also the issue with the CCT tower in Patch." Ozpin said.

"Wait, what about Patch?" Jaune asked sitting up straight.

"It's probably nothing, could be some a malfunction of some kind." Ironwood said.

"Or it shut down, Or sabotaged. CCT Towers don't suffer malfunctions" Jaune said in a slightly accusing tone. "That does line up with something the Dust Eater said last night."

Ozpin's eyes perked up "Oh, what would that be? You never mentioned anything about the Dust Eater speaking to you in your report."

"I didn't feel it was important enough to add to my report, but the Dust Eater told me that the CCT tower in patch had gone out of commission but it wasn't the White Fang that disabled it." Jaune mentioned.

"Come off it kid, he was a terrorist, he was probably lying to you." Ironwood said dismissively. "Besides it was just a Dust Eater, in my experience half of what they say are lies anyways."

"You know, I hear they have a name for you General." Jaune said with a growing anger. "The Dust Eaters I mean."

"Is that so?" James said dismissively.

"They call you the _Butcher of the Cross Caravan_ " Jaune said. "I'm not sure what that was supposed to mean, The Dust Eater accused me of being a 'Servant of the butcher of the Cross Caravan'"

"Yeah I remember that day, I was a Sergeant then, we got the orders to run off a Dust Eater caravan that was getting to close for comfort to Argus. my company went in to drive them off from Atlas interests in the area." James said loosing his smug expression. "It was a slaughter, we half a company of solders that early on that day when they started to fight back. I was the ranking officer in charge by the time we managed to turn it around and wiped the Caravan out." James leaned back in his seat "By the end of the day, we lost about a company and a half. That's... about 220 lives lost that day."

Jaune was silent as he heard Ironwood casually talk about the slaughter of his people, an entire caravan of a hundred and fifteen Dust Eaters died on that day. _"Better get used to it Jaune, this is who you threw your lot in with."_

"Honestly, I'm not even sure there was driving towards Argus, and even if they did... Well I guess it's in the past now." Iron wood said to end his small story.

"Ironwood here as actually been a starch supporter of the idea of ending the Dust Eater extermination policy in Atlas for a number of years Jaune." Ozpin noted. "I understand you might have some reservations at the moment as you had to take the life of that Dust Eater last night, but put your concerns to rest."

"I will sir I apologize." Jaune said. "I still want to suggest we send someone to see what is going on with the CCT tower in Patch, the last thing we want is the Fang to attack out there."

"I'll send out an agent to indulge you, although I admit their is little strategic value in doing so." Ozpin mentioned. "Unless you know something I don't."

Jaune pondered his options for a second. "Just call it a hunch sir, I mean one of my teammates is from patch and I just am worried for their sake.

Ozpin nodded "If there is nothing else, lets call it here, Jaune has classes he needs to get to after all."

The trio all nodded and Jaune existed the headmasters office. Jaune didn't seem particularly comforted by what just happened in there.

* * *

A couple hours later, after some rather dull classes. Jaune sat with Weiss as they watched Pyrrha dismantle the entirety of Team CRDL during combat class.

"Man I envy her energy..." Jaune said to Weiss as he leaned forward in his seat.

"Yeah you'd almost never know she was just in a fight to the death last night" Weiss said.

Jaune chuckled to himself. "Well this the very same Pyrrha Nikos is who we all want to grow up to be someday" He said before he nudged Weiss with his shoulder.

"So how was the headmaster?" Weiss asked with a hint of curiosity.

"Oh yeah, turns out I'm terrible so he's kicking me out of school." Jaune then joked. "Sorry I should have led the conversation with that."

"No seriously, I do worry about you most nights." Weiss said leaning into him to speak quietly.

Jaune leaned in closer and quietly spoke "It wasn't anything important to be honest, he just wanted to make sure my after hours tutoring was paying off."

"If that's all it was, then I guess I'll relax a little bit..." Weiss said unconvinced.

Jaune tensed up a bit in contemplation. "Actually I wanted to vent a concern I've had since last night if that is okay with you."

Weiss smiled "Yeah sure I'll listen to what you have to say."

Jaune looked slightly off to the side. "I... I think Atlas may have attacked Patch..."

"What? Why do you think that?" Weiss said slightly louder than she had intended on saying.

"Well I haven't been able to get a hold of home the last couple days. and Issac... The Dust Eater from last night voiced his suspicions that Atlas knew were my people settled down at." Jaune said.

"Jaune... Gods almighty, did you talk to Yang or Ruby about this?" Weiss asked.

Jaune carefully read Weiss's expression to see if she was being honest with him. He couldn't say for sure. "What's to say, it could be a network glitch for all I know. I won't know anything until the tower is back up an running."

Weiss nodded and spoke up "Yeah I mean for all we know that Dust Eater was just saying it to rattle you during the fight."

Jaune sighed "That wasn't it at all. The fight was over when he said it. Weiss he was dying in my arms while telling me this."

"I'm sorry Jaune. I know that can't be easy on you considering how few of you their are left." Weiss said as she took his hand.

Jaune enjoyed the feeling of her hand but still found himself mentally questioning _"She's either a good actor, or she's being honest with me. Which one is it Weiss?"_

"Yeah... I guess all we can do for right now is hope the best right?" Jaune said as he thought _"Because if I find out Patch was attacked I'm going to take your head off."_

At the same time though, something about her face, that look of honest concern in her eyes, it wasn't for her own sake. Jaune knew she was worried for her friends, Ruby, Yang, and he supposed him. he felt her thumb rubbing against his thumb as she held on to his hand. "Jaune you know... I can't ever really make up for what my family did to your people."

"I never asked you to Weiss." Jaune said feeling a slight warmth in his cheeks.

"But, I just wanted you to know. If you need anything from me, I mean anything from me. Just ask me okay?" Weiss said looking up at him.

"Hey I will" Jaune said with a genuine smile "I promise you that okay?"

"Were on the same side no matter what happens. Nothing can ever change that." Weiss said in an almost reassuring tone.

Jaune was about to say something, but was interrupted when Glynda announced the end of classes. Jaune watched Weiss step out and he was slow to follow. As he exited the school he traced a thumb over Issac's weapon thinking _"Yeah, well time will tell if your being honest with me, because if your not gods help me."_

Jaune clinched his fist _"I'll kill you myself."_

* * *

 **So here's we go with another chapter of Dust Eater in the bag, I wanted to try and stay to a rough once a week schedule for now. I think that once "A Quiet Monochrome world" wraps it's current arc (which is only a couple chapters from now) I'm going to change up the rotation to alternate between on story and the other for the time being.**

 **You probably have noticed that there is a bit of a formatting change here, I'm putting my Author notes on the bottom now, I just like it more. Also that was a bit of feedback I got from a recent "Fan fiction Friday" session on the "Qrow's Nest" Discord that I took the heart as I was already putting end of chapter notes for AQMW.**

 **Also if your reading this, then your officially reading the 4/3 winner of the Qrow's nest's Community spotlight vote for their weekly Fan Fiction Friday discussion. That being said though April is their "Bad Fan Fic month" so... Yay?**

 **I do kid though, it was helpful to get a bit of feedback on the fic itself, and it was surprisingly gentle all things considered. So yeah that's all I have to say for this chapter, I will see you all next chapter and hope you all have a lovely time till then.**


	42. Chapter 42

It was a few days after the confrontation at the docks when Jaune went back to training with Ozpin. As he faced down the training drone, this time with it armed with rapier like weapon crafted from hard light aimed at him.

Jaune had, oddly enough found himself more and more capable of standing up against the drone. as he opted to use this time to practice with a combination of Isaac's chain whip and his loaned sword he kept the drone at a medium range one closing in to try and take advantage of opening's with his sword.

"Headmaster, do you might if I ask a few questions while I practice, I'm trying to keep my eyes open" Jaune asked Ozpin who stood nearby.

Ozpin stood off to the side as he watched Jaune face off against the drone "I'm your teacher, and your my student, ask away young Arc."

Jaune asked "How well do you really know Ironwood?" before he took a few steps back and struck the Drone in the chest with Isaac's whip

"Ironwood and I go back many years, why do you ask?" Ozpin said before he took a sip of his ever present coffee up.

"Do you trust him?" Jaune asked as he dashed forward "I'm honestly not so certain I do sir." as he took a lunging slash at the drone that was parried aside.

"I won't lie and tell you that James and I see eye to eye on every issue we face. His military background does lead to him coming with with solutions to issues that I wouldn't consider as a teacher." Ozpin said with a light shrug "I am curious as to why your asking Mr Arc."

"I'll come out and say it then, I don't trust him, he's killed Dust Eaters" Jaune grunted out as he threw an Dust enhanced kick that sent the drone back out to whipping range. "With so few of us, and our numbers shrinking every day, I can't help but wonder if his actions haven't already doomed my race."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at Jaune "Ironwood has been an advocate for the repeal of the extermination laws for a number of years now. I assure you that one some level, your goals align"

Jaune thought to himself _"Our goals most certainly do not align at all, he's a killer!"_ As the drone lunged in for a straight thrust Jaune threw out a length of the chain whip and coiled it around it's weapon arm. _"But I guess I'm not better anymore."_

"I have to ask Mr Arc, to what extent your own prejudices are coloring your views on the matter of Ironwood." Ozpin said as he walked around the edge of the training arena as Jaune ran the sword through the drones throat.

In a rage Jaune shifted tearing the sword out of the drone taking its head off and kicked it in his chest sending it flying, save for the coiled up arm that tore free when Jaune kicked it away.

Jaune turned to Ozpin slamming the head off to one side and the arm to his other shouting "Your gods damn right I do, they exterminated my people! They killed two of my sisters. They even turned my father, who was little more than a dust miner, into a fucking terrorist! So yes I would say my prejudices are coloring my views on Ironwood a bit!"

Ozpin clearly Un-phased took a sip from his drink before he kept talking. "Understandable, but given current events I find myself wondering a few things." Ozpin took another sip "Such as how much of a blind eye do you personally turn in regards to what your fathers group is doing in regards to attacking Atlas interests?"

"There is a big goddamn difference. There is what, millions of humans out there and optimistically 500 Dust eaters that we know of?"

"I suppose if you put it that way, Mr Winchester will must surely take some comfort in knowing that his father's death at the hands of the White Fang constituted a statistically lower percentage of the whole of his race." Ozpin said with a slight hint of frustration

Jaune clenched his fists tightly before he took a deep breath and shifted back to his lower powered human shape. "I see your point, but Cardin's father died fighting at least, I can't say the same for my sisters." Jaune hooked the whip back to his bet.

Ozpin sighed out stating "I knew that your anger would be a continued struggle for you Mr Arc. I had hoped that your friendship with Ms Schnee would have changed you at least a bit for the better in that regard."

"Leave Weiss out of this!" Jaune barked out.

Ozpin nodded stating "Seems I struck a bit of a nerve there. Very well I won't press the matter further. Were not getting much farther tonight and it seems I need to increase the skill levels of the AI further." Ozpin gestured Jaune to call it a night "Please get some rest."

Jaune left without a word, but with a lot to think about.

* * *

A couple days later. Jaune found himself called out of class to the headmasters office. Professor Port simply gestured out to excuse Jaune. Jaune had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Ever since he joined this "Conspiracy" of Ozpin's he has never once been pulled out of a class like this.

Jaune rode the Elevator up and stepped out to see that Ironwood and Ozpin were in a conference call with someone. It seems as always business came first.

Ozpin stands up and shakes Jaune's hand and gestures him to have a seat. "Jaune, good, one of my field agents is on the phone with the results of his trip to Patch."

"He didn't want to come out in person" Jaune said with a raised eyebrow and a shrug

Ironwood chuckles and leans back in his seat slightly "Qrow is not a face to face kind of man. Even though he has a seemingly supernatural way to travel around the face of Remnant. He never seems to be keen on seeing us in person for some reason"

Jaune scoffs "I mean, looks what he's missing out on by not showing up in person. His loss really."

Ironwood shakes his head slightly "Charming as always kid."

Ozpin rubs his temple and speaks into his speakerphone "Qrow please get started before Jaune and Ironwood get yet another argument going."

The slightly cracking voice of the mysterious Qrow chimes in over the speakerphone "Well, I'll keep it brief the kid's hunch was on the money. The CCT tower in patch was disabled remotely and the Dust Eater camp was in fact attacked by moderate sized detachment of Atlesian Knights."

Jaune shot out of his seat shouting "What!?"

"Sit down Jaune." Ozpin held out a hand and gestured him to return to his seat which Jaune does so reluctantly.

Iron scoffs at the idea "That's impossible! I would have been informed of any military action in the kingdom of Vale as the senior officer in the kingdom at the moment."

Qrow's voice came through loud and clear as he spoke "If I'm lying I'm dying, the damn Dust Eaters have the ruined knights heads on crates as trophies. Not to mention as we speak they are salvaging them for parts. Guess one lady here has a leg missing from a previous raid and she's getting a knight leg modified for a prosthetic"

Ozpin shrugged "I'll give them one thing, that's clever."

Jaune slightly grinned _"Classic mom right there"_ Before he spoke up asking Qrow "Any word when the CCT tower will be back up and running, and was Patch directly attacked?"

Qrow answered Jaune directly over the phone. "It's going to be a while kid, Like I said, it had a shutdown signal sent to it, With no damage to repair it'll be a simple matter to have someone call in a request for the reactivation code to be sent through but..."

Ironwood interjected looking at Jaune "It has to come from Atlas directly since they run the network" Ironwood turned to the phone to speak "Do we know where the signal came from?"

Qrow is silent on the phone, hesitating to answer the question.

Ozpin spoke up "Go ahead Qrow we need to know."

Qrow said with an overly serious tone that would throw Ironwood and Ozpin off slightly to hear from their mutual associate "I'm not accusing anyone of anything. But the shutdown order came from Vale. Reportedly under the signed orders of General James Ironwood."

Both Jaune and Ironwood stood up, Jaune first followed by Ironwood who got ready for the younger man to lash out violently. Fortunately for both of them Jaune held back. Ozpin would later not that Jaune had a hand on the chain-whip's hilt. _"I should really ask Mr Arc where he acquired that weapon"_

Jaune shouted at Ironwood "You son of a bitch! You gave the order?"

Ironwood shouted back "It wasn't me, Orders can be faked Arc!" Ironwood had noticeably rested a hand on his sidearm.

Ozpin was not ready for his two allies and co-conspirators getting into a brawl in his office, especially when Jaune's nerves were becoming increasingly frayed for the last few days for a reason that eluded him. "Sit down! Both of you!" He shouted in an uncharacteristically loud tone.

It took a minute before Both Jaune and Ironwood decided they had shot enough daggers with their eyes at the other and sat back down.

Qrow finally felt like it was generally safe to speak up again "Look everyone if I had to be honest something does feel off with this whole thing. We have no confirmed casualties on our end. The worst I can report is a few dust eaters getting roughed up. No confirmed ground troops, Just strike force of Knights. If this was an Atlas attack It was either a probe or it was designed to look intentionally uncoordinated."

Ironwood said feeling defensively "Or it was the White Fang attempting to make it look like a Atlas attacked the Dust Eaters"

Jaune found himself asking "It doesn't fit, why would they intentionally attack the families of their staunchest allies?" Privately he found himself thinking _"Also why do you not sound the least bit surprised to learn Patch had Dust Eaters..."_

Ironwood folded his arms as he spoke up "I don't work for the fang so don't ask me for why. But we know they have stolen a good amount of hardware from us. If we can get some of the serial numbers from the destroyed knights we can trace them back to see if they were confirmed stolen or not." Ironwood pointed at Jaune "We could even tell you when and where they were stolen from."

Jaune shook his head as he replied to Ironwood "Sounds convenient, but let's say for argument's sake that Atlas did commit to the attack with the intent on later pining it on the White Fang. How hard would it be for Atlas to alter the records to flag the Knights as Stolen?"

Ironwood raised an eyebrow "I'm not sure I like what you're implying, but it would be easy to do with the right clearance."

Jaune held up his hands as he spoke "Don't misunderstand me, I'm not accusing you Ironwood. But the SDC has a proven history of _bending_ rules and laws to get what they want."

Ironwood nodded with a sign "It's something worth looking into. I'll get back to you all on it."

Ozpin stood up noting the time "Either way this is a situation we need to handle carefully, I can very easily see the enemy wanting to exploit the situation to attempt to drive a wedge between Vale and Atlas." he lifted his coffee cup "Let's table the remainder of this discussion till later"

Everyone in the room split off, Ironwood stayed for a second to ask Ozpin "You know. I'm questioning the need for a hothead like him. I get that your training him to be a bodyguard. But involving him in these meetings is proving to be disruptive."

Ozpin didn't respond as Ironwood stepped out.

* * *

It was after class when he met up with Weiss, at her request she asked him to join her in the training room while she did battle with a a drone, Jaune quietly scoffed at the fact she was dueling with a "mere" level 12... Even though that should have someone for a second or third year to spar against.

Granted Jaune never knew Weiss to do anything in halves..

Jaune lounged back on a bleacher in a way he's seen Ozpin lounge when training him "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Weiss was deeply locked in a fencing duel with the level 12 drone who was fighting with the exact same weapon as she spoke. "What I can't enjoy my partners company?"

"You saying i'm being a bad partner?" Jaune said as he waved around with one hand almost absentmindedly

Weiss parried a relatively skilled forward thrust and tried to reply with one of her own that was similarly repelled leaving Jaune with the impression she dumped down the drone on purpose. "You have been hard to talk to as of late."

Jaune chucked "Your just being jealous because I went to that street fair with Ruby." He said with a playful grin on his face. "I promise I'll take you next time."

Weiss said after she gestured the Drone to stop sparing with her. "See, this is what i'm talking about, I'm trying to have a serious talk to you and your brushing me off!" Weiss said as she hooked her weapon on her belt and walked over to him to sit down.

Jaune subconsciously leaned away from her as he talked "Well let's talk then, what's on your mind?"

Weiss very intentionally leaned in to speak to him "Jaune, I'm worried about you. Your doing that lone wolf thing we were just breaking you of."

Jaune sat up losing all pretends of being relaxed or at ease "Breaking... like one would do to a mindless beast..."

Weiss shook her head and sighed "Not even slightly what I meant and you know it... Look I just want to know what happened?"

Jaune leaned forward and clasped his hands together. "The Dust Eaters at Patch was attacked again."

Weiss's eyes shot wide. "What? Your sure?"

Jaune shook his head and sighed carefully watching Weiss. "Ozpin had someone go out to patch to check it out, that's what he pulled me out of class for today..."

Weiss rested a hand on Jaune's back as she talked. "Who attacked them Jaune?"

Jaune slightly leaned away from Weiss's hand "The raiding force was made up of a large strike force of Knights..."

Weiss shook her head in surprise as she looked at Jaune "Do you think Atlas did it?"

Jaune separated his hands as he started to discreetly watch Weiss for her reaction to the next few questions he wanted to ask her. "Maybe, seems pretty damn likely at this point. My question is how they found out where we resettled?"

Weiss leaned back as she looked on the surface to be racking her head. "I-I don't know, how they could have found out."

Jaune stands up and traces his thumb over the hilt of Isaac's weapon "Besides the people of Patch. _Very few_ people knew about the encampment."

Weiss sat her with a visibly hurt look on her face. "What are you saying, are you thinking I told Atlas?"

Jaune turned to face her with his hand brushing his fingers on the chain whip "I'm not saying that..."

"Your not exactly ruling it out either though are you?" Weiss said as she stood and walked over to him. "Gods Jaune, I saw how bad it tore you apart when you were still grieving for your sisters, why in the hell would I want to put you through that again!"

Jaune was taken back but the emotion she put into her words, he put up both his hands while speaking "Look, I'm not saying I suspect you. I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to think."

Weiss stepped a bit closer to him. "Your not saying you don't suspect me either."

Jaune held out his arms. "Well what am I supposed to say, the only people that know about the Dust Eater camp on Patch, is you, Ruby, Yang, and Blake!"

Weiss not almost on the verge of tears screamed "As well as the entire population of the island of Patch, including an entire combat school that takes in students from outside Vale!"

Jaune breaks eye contact and tries to think but Weiss tilts his face towards his to make him look her in her tear filled eyes. "I have never, and I will never, e _ver_ do anything to violate the trust you have put in me."

Try as he might, Jaune couldn't find any deception in her eyes, and he's an expert in the subject of keeping secrets. "Sorry..."

Weiss suddenly became aware of how close her face was to his, his lips were only at most a couple inches from hers. the realization caused her to blush and freeze up _"Oh I am not contemplating this!"_

Jaune picked up on this and got a bit of a blush on his face him also thinking _"Oh I am definitely not contemplating this."_

Weiss as if controlled by an unknown force found herself being drawn closer to Jaune _"Still not contemplating this"_

Jaune eventually stopped her saying "Hold up..." in a soft tone.

Weiss froze in place, but feeling emboldened by the situation asked "Do you trust me?" Weiss clarified what she was asking a second later "I mean to not hurt you..."

Still with Weiss only maybe an inch from her face, and a heat rising inside he had to make a choice. as he weighed it out in his mind he spoke out in a soft whisper "No... at least I don't one hundred percent trust you... but I'm working on it."

Weiss's eyes looked down slightly before she whispered "Good enough for me" and her face closed the distance in to his pressing her lips against his. Jaune tensed for a second before relaxing and started to kiss back.

Weiss pulled back a few moments later and looked at Jaune her face almost completely red with a look of embarrassment on her face. "Oh gods I went way to far!"

Jaune shook his head for a second as he looked at the door. After thinking about it for a second he pulled Weiss back in for a second kiss that lasted much longer. When they finally broke away Jaune mentioned "No, going too far would be me pointing out that the door to this training room is locked and you already sleep in my bed half the time."

Weiss glanced over and saw that, yes the door is locked. "Well... yeah it is..."

Jaune nodded "We can stop here you know, head out and pretend this never happened?"

Weiss reached up to the zipper of her hooded coat. "I didn't say I wanted to stop."

What happened next is best left to one's imagination.

* * *

 **This chapter was hell to write, I'm glad it's done... That being said it's a bit tempting to draft up a version of this chapter that edited the "Non T rated" bits back in if there's some kind of demand for it. But I had to make a choice as to if I wanted to keep my T rating or up it to M... I went with T.**

 **I don't have much to add to this chapter outside of this, mostly because it how much of a slog this was to write, so I'm just going to say I'll see you all next time.**


	43. Chapter 43

The next day Jaune woke up feeling more rested than he had in a couple weeks. He still got up for the rest of his team so he opted to shower and get a jog in before breakfast. While he was out running he had the fortune of running into Ruby who quickly offered to do a lap around campus grounds with him.

As they both jogged in sweatpants Ruby broke the comfortable silence by saying "So you seem different today?" Ruby got a playful look on her face "Something nice happen to you for once?"

"Well I mean I actually slept for once if that's what you mean." Jaune stated as he jogged along throwing shadow boxes out as he ran.

Ruby shook her head as she ran "I can't put my finger on it to be honest but something is different about you,." Ruby said as she ran snapping her fingers trying to figure it out.

Jaune sighed out "Uh... Yeah let's not make of this. I think your picking up that I don't have a smell today." Jaune said as he tried not to make direct eye contact with Ruby.

"Yeah that's it actually you don't have that sm-" Ruby paused with a blush as she ran and sighed out a disappointed sounding "Oh gods Jaune..."

"I...I can explain." Jaune said as he looked off to the side.

Ruby shook her head "No it's fine... I don't need the details." Ruby muttered quietly "It's not like I had a thing for you or anything like that"

"Heard that." Jaune said as he looked at Ruby

"Fuck you." Ruby said back not looking at you.

Jaune jogged alone with ruby in silence for a couple minutes before Jaune broke the uncomfortable silence by saying "I wasn't trying to hurt you..."

Ruby glanced over at Jaune with a slightly hurt look on her face "Yeah I know...I mean you can't help how you feel you know?"

Jaune slowed to a stop and turned his jog into a slow walk with Ruby. "You know your not losing me as a friend."

Ruby slowed to a walk as well talking with a defeated tone "I know...Just tell me it wasn't Yang"

"It was so not Yang." Jaune said almost chuckling, "I mean I can't picture a timeline where that would happen."

"Weiss then..." Ruby said as she took in a deep breath and got some of her confidence back "Well I'm okay with it if it's her."

Jaune exhaled out in a sigh of relief. "Yeah Well... I've made dumber decisions in my life..."

"Oh so she's a dumb decision?" Ruby asked tilting her head at him in confusion.

"Well that was a lousy choice of words on my part. I'm just not sure what were are now. Are we just partners that hooked up once? Did we suddenly become a couple? We didn't exactly talk this out!" Jaune said.

Ruby sighed and rubbed her neck while thinking _"I can't believe i'm about to do this..."_ before speaking out "Jaune you need to sort this out, you don't need this hurting your team's cohesion this close to the Vytal festival."

"Well I was planning on asking her about it today..." Jaune said rubbing his neck as he kept walking alongside Ruby.

"Yeah well try to keep your pants on this time." Ruby said rubbing her forehead as she also walked along.

Jaune hand signaled for them to start jogging again. As the pair started to ramp up to jogging speed again he spoke up. "I mean one way I could sort it out is with the school dance" Jaune said nonchalantly "I wasn't planning on going but if I ask her and she says yes then that tells me something right?"

Ruby just shook her head and asked "How exactly do you have kids again?"

"Desperation on the woman's part. Oh hey did you want to see pictures of the babies? Nep sent a few to my scroll!" Jaune said as he held his scroll out in front her

"Aww they're both cute, twin boys?" Ruby's brain overloaded from the cuteness as she asked.

"Yeah, I hope I get more pictures of them." Jaune said before sleeping the scroll back into his pocket.

Ruby muttered out a pathetic sounding "But... Babies..." as Jaune put his scroll away.

"I know right?" Jaune snickered out to Ruby. "So, you and I going to be okay?"

"I'll get over it, I mean nothing has to change between us right?" Ruby said as she started to wind down their jog.

Jaune held out his fist for a fist bump "Not at all."

Ruby fist bumped Jaune "Awesome!"

The pair stopped and started to catch their breath. Ruby chucked to herself.

"What's so funny" Jaune said back to her.

"I'm picturing how Weiss would react if I went up to her and asked if she'd be cool sharing..." Ruby joked.

"Please don't... she knows where I sleep" Jaune pleaded.

"I make no promises Arc!" Ruby said as she walked on ahead of him.

"Yeah... Dumb decision confirmed..." Jaune said to himself before he went inside to get breakfast.

* * *

Meanwhile Weiss was walking to get breakfast by herself feeling sore from yesterday still thinking _"Gods help me I think I broke something."_ As she walked she came across Neptune who suddenly burst around the corner. "Oh hey Jaune! Good time I was looking for you-"

Neptune looked around for Jaune. "Hey what gives, where's the idiot?"

Weiss looked around. "Clearly not here?"

Neptune poked his head into a nearby dorm room before he started to look down the hall. Neptune even went so far as to go to the end of the hall and checking around corner. "That is so weird."

"Okay look i'm kind of hungry so I'll be go-" Weiss said before she was cut off.

"Well, it's just that I smell him... Did you know we could smell each other?" Neptune said.

"I do live with him, it might be his scent rubbing off on me." Weiss stopped and said her mind was meanwhile thinking _"Not in that way god damnit... Okay yes in that way but you don't need to know that!"_

Nep laughed it off "Yeah no the only reason a girl would pick up the scent of one of us is if you were wearing his clothes. Or if you-" Nep stopped mid sentence before he pinched his nose. "Uh excuse me I need to go have find and have a chat with Jaune."

"Uh, Neptune?" Weiss asked

"What is it Schnee?" Nep said looking slightly pissed off.

"What do you need to talk to Jaune about? I can call his scroll so he can meet up with you." Weiss said with a smile.

"Dipshit violated the golden rule, I need to have a come to the Gods chat with him" Neptune said as he walked off.

 _"Uh... Is he armed?"_ Weiss thought as she watched him walk off with an assault rifle on his back.

* * *

Jaune had just finished up a post breakfast study session in one of the quiet training rooms, He figured he he was going to far around with dust combinations it would be better done in a room that had soundproofing so he wouldn't disturb anyone when he accidentally blew up the table he was sitting at. He was just about to apply the final ingredient to the mixture, one that if done poorly would cause the entire solution to detonate violently.

And then Neptune kicked the door open causing him to drop way to much of dust into the solution.

"Fuck!" Jaune said grabbing the beaker and tossing it away before hitting the deck and covering his ears with his mouth open as he was trained to by his village prevent the burst from blowing his eardrums out.

"Arc you motherfucker you-" Was as far as Neptune before the flash bang like explosion laid him out for a second.

"Aw motherfuck Nep... What the hell do you want?" Jaune screamed out once he was able to hear well enough to hear noises again.

Neptune slammed the door shut as he walked over to the still disoriented Jaune and took a swing at him, Jaune narrowly caught his wild punch and threw out and equally wild side kick that Neptune blocked. The two Dust Eaters took up fighting stances facing each other Neptune's stance was more fluid looking while Jaune took up a hard boxing stance as he stared down Neptune.

"Want to explain what the hell is going on Nep?" Jaune shouted as he closed the gap and threw out a series of rapid punches at Neptune. Neptune was able to blocked most of them, but the last two punches struck him striking him in the stomach and sending him stumbling back.

Neptune closed in and clocked Jaune with a pair of spinning roundhouse kicks in return knocking Jaune over. "I know what you did with the Schnee girl!" Neptune shouted "Are you actually this fucking stupid?"

Jaune wiped his nose as he got back and closed the gap with a pair of gut punches to stagger Neptune before he lifted up Neptune and performed a nearly flawless "Northern lights Suplex" on he shouted back "Yeah, what I do and who I do it with is none of your gods damn business!"

Neptune staggered back to his feet "So you don't deny it then!" Neptune shouted as he rushed Jaune and performed a flying drop kick into Jaune's chest. Jaune barely had a moment to spare to block. Even still the block caused him to stagger back a good few feet.

Jaune grown out as he retorted with a spinning axe kick "Deny it? Why would Deny it?" he grunted out as his foot came down and was caught By Neptune.

"It's bad enough that you ended up partnered with her. But now your sleeping with her? Is this some kind of fucked up teen rebellion phase?" Neptune shouted as he threw off his leg and they both took a few steps back.

"We are all going to fucking die if we follow my fathers path Nep!" Jaune shouted pointing out in the direction of Vale. "And not just Patch, but the Caravans as well. My father is leading us down a path of _Genocide_! He's lost his fucking mind!"

Neptune took a step back "I'm not talking about your father" He said in a calmer voice "And I don't want to talk about how I currently feel about your dad, but your making a mistake here, what would happen if she ends up pregnant Jaune?"

Jaune stopped and looked off to the side "I didn't think about it..."

Neptune sighed and threw his arms out. "Dammit Jaune, you never think it over, otherwise you wouldn't have violated the second half of the golden rule _Never stick it in a Schnee!_ "

"She's different okay?" Jaune smiled and said. "I got to know her, and i'm not kidding when I say we owe each other of our lives."

Neptune just made and ugh face as he paced around. "I'm mean that's absolutely peachy Jaune but your still bumping uglies with _a fucking Schnee!_ Do you not see the gods damn problem with this at all" Neptune ended up getting in Jaune's face. "You are literally sleeping with the enemy here! That's a real big problem!"

"Well to late dipshit she already met my mom and she already likes her." Jaune said holding out his arms. "How About that my dude"

Neptune sighed out "Oh gods you didn't just call me 'my dude'" before he took a step out. "Your making a mistake here and it's going to get you killed. Not to mention half of our race."

Jaune sighed out. "Look Nep, I'm really not trying to make this a thing with you, that fight didn't count because we do that all the time... but seriously... I got to get to class man."

"Fine, just try to think about what I said?" Neptune pleaded to Jaune as Jaune turned to walk out of the room.

While Jaune was walking out, he almost bumped into Cinder. "Sorry Ma'am almost ran into you."

"Oh don't worry about me honey, you can bump into me whenever you like" Cinder said practically purring at him.

Jaune admittingly got a small blush as he stepped out of the training room. Cinder then turned to Neptune and asked "So what is the status on the situation with Mr Arc?"

Neptune shrugged to her as Mercury and Emerald also walked in the room "Yeah he's a lost cause, we'll never get him back on our side at this point..."

"That's a damn shame, I was actually kinda hoping it would have worked out for us." Cinder said with a slightly sad looking expression on her face. "So what do we have to work with then?"

Neptune rubbed his neck where he landed on it during the brawl. "Well we might have ourselves either the scandal of the century. or a way to get the SDC itself on our side."

Cinder smiled sweetly "Well don't leave me in the dark, I might make this one worth your while if you play your cards right?"

Neptune leaned in close "Oh no, let's call this paying you back for the last night."

Cinder tilted her head and smirked "I do love me a man who pays his debts..."

* * *

Later on that evening Jaune returned from a study session with Ruby and Yang. As he got into his room and kicked his boots off by his bed he went and face planted into the bed. He didn't even notice that he wasn't alone in the room until he heard the bathroom door click open and he saw Weiss step out into the room in her nightgown.

"Hey..." Jaune said with a slight level of hesitation.

"Hey..." Weiss said with a blush as she walked over and sat down next to him. "We need to talk"

"Way to soon for me to be the dad Weiss." Jaune chuckled.

"Okay, not where i'm going with that... but..." Weiss started to hesitate

Jaune decided to take the initiative and try to enact the plan he came up with that morning "So I was thinking, the dance coming up... I suddenly was interested in going to it, but I don't have a date for it."

Weiss chuckled nervously "Well I pity the poor girl that gets roped into going with you."

"Yeah, damn shame for that girl as well, she's going to get stuck with a guy who's not all that into her." Jaune said as he leaned back in his seat.

"Oh really?" Weiss said with her voice wavering.

"Yeah, that jerk only has eyes for one girl it turns out." Jaune said as he looked up at the ceiling.

Weiss rubbed her hands together "Oh... I guess I better ask who that girl i then..." she muttered out in a defeated tone.

"Well she's this absolutely breathtaking girl that I met my first day here. I really didn't like her at all at first. We just seemed to manage to piss each other off more often that not." Jaune said looking right at her.

Weiss felt a blush creeping on her face "Oh really? What do you think about this girl now."

"That I don't think I could live without her..." Jaune said with a smile "So that being said, you going to let me take you to the dance Weiss?"

"I don't know, I mean I had my eyes on this cute guy that is really good at keeping secrets. He managed to keep a pretty big one from me for a couple months..." Weiss said with a smile on her face "But I wouldn't be here without him either. I'm not going to lie to myself and say i'm not head over heels for him. But I'm scared that maybe it won't work out since my family doesn't get along with his."

"Well sounds to me like you know what you want." Jaune said with a smirk. "It'd be pretty easy for you to reach out and take it."

As Jaune said his bit, his hand somehow ended up intertwined with Weiss's, she looked down at his hand and smiled before she shifted her body to face him. "Well I mean, if you think it's best." She said as she leaned in and started to kiss him. with her free hand starting to stroke his chest.

And then the door to the dorm room flew open as Blake and Yang walked in chatting about Sun... A conversation that came to a dead stop as the pair saw Jaune and Weiss locking lips in a tender embrace.

Blake muttered something about getting why she smelling like Jaune now with a blush as Yang looked at the pair of them. "Okay you two, I'm not giving my team lead and his partner the birds and the bees talk. knock it off!" Yang said as Blake chuckled out.

Weiss shocked the room when she dead panned to Yang "Yeah too late Yang..."

The room broke into laughter as Blake went to close the door...

* * *

 **Okay lets get this out of the way now, yes I could have had this up 30 minutes ago, but I was prepping a google doc file with the uncensored version of chapter 42... As the writer, I advised you... Strongly advise you. Don't actually read it, and it you do, don't post comments about it on here.**

 **That being said, this should officially be the last chapter before the dance and the events that took place during it. so look forward to that. Thanks again for everyone one who commented on the last chapter, as always including one of you that actually put a lovely idea in my head that i'm going to run with now. But that's for later. Until then, thanks for reading, see you all next time.**


	44. Chapter 44

Tonight was the night. Jaune walked into the Main hall of the school in a wearing the best clothes he could muster on short notice. Jaune was wearing a long-sleeve dark gray dress shirt and black slacks with a black tie finishing up the ensemble. Weiss was hanging off his arm wearing a spaghetti strapped White dress that left far more skin showing than her father would approve of.

When word got out that the young boy from the mining town and the heir of the SDC had became "An item" it sparked rumors and talk all over the school.

Jaune would note that at least half of them were true...

As Jaune walked Weiss down to the dance floor, fashionably late to the dance he was told. The quickly established themselves as they danced for a few minutes Several thoughts started to go through his mind not the least of which was _"It didn't seem like all that long ago I saw this girl as an enemy... funny how things work out."_

"Your grimacing." Weiss said looking at him in the eyes as she had her arms resting around his neck. "I know you do that a lot, but try to minimize it for the evening."

Jaunes grim expression slipped away as he chuckled "Oh do I now?" As he tightened his grip on her waist.

"Yes you do, and we wouldn't want anyone to get the impression that were not the perfectly happy couple." Weiss chuckled out as she danced with her partner turned boyfriend.

"Well we can't have that now, after all you apparently managed to tame me, Or at least that's what all of the school gossip I hear is saying about you." Jaune smirked as he spoke.

Weiss smiled as she the song ended and she lead the two of them to a table "I mean I kinda like the sound of that, but we both know your not 'Tame' in the slightest."

It didn't take long for them sitting there to find themselves joined by Yang and Blake who were both helping out with the dance as staffers. Blake of course wore a typical black dress that she could easily maneuver in. Yang on the other hand wore an almost too revealing red dress to the dance. Jaune found himself putting a concentrated amount of willpower into not looking to closely at Yang.

"Did you two get lost on the way here, the dance started about 40 minutes ago." Yang questioned the pair with a playful smirk. "You don't _look_ like you got lost in a broom closet on the way here."

"If you must know, I'm not much for tying ties and we had to detour to find someone who could." Jaune quipped back.

"Are you sure it has nothing to do with that mark on your neck that wasn't there this morning?" Blake quipped back leaning on her hand.

Weiss blushed thinking about it.

"I have no comments on the matter. I am here to enjoy the company of my teammates and friends and I have no interest in enduring such slander." Jaune said as he tried and failed to put on a look of airs and nobility about him.

"Honey stop trying to look fancy, your bad at it" Weiss said with a smirk as she rested on her and with a look of amusement on her face.

Jaune leaned his head back and groaned out a playful "Bitch, why are we dating?"

"To spite my dad." Weiss said with a smirk as she rubbed his arm.

"That's your excuse, what's mine?" Jaune said staring at the ceiling.

"To spite your dad" Weiss said with a wider smirk.

"Ah there we go, thanks for the reminder, let's go be spiteful on the dance floor." Jaune said as he leaned his head forward.

Weiss then stood up and lead Jaune off to the dance floor as well. As they danced they saw a couple other "Power couples" of the first years. Ren and Nora were dancing the night away with Nora's cheeks as red as her hair the entire time. Ren himself had a small almost imperceptible smirk on his face as danced away with his oldest friend and rumored girlfriend.

Not to far away they saw Cardain and Velvet dancing quietly with each other, well it was mostly dancing as one of them would occasionally catch the other off guard for long enough to kiss the other. Those two, in Jaune's own words were just downright stupid for each other. It put a smile on Jaunes face to see it every time.

As they danced for what felt like an hour Jaune noted more than once that Ruby was not present, Weiss must have as well as he felt a tap on his shoulder and a whisper "Hey, I think I saw Ruby headed out, go check on her!"

Jaune let go of Weiss and smiled "Alright, i'll try to be back quickly okay?" he said as he walked off.

* * *

Jaune managed to catch up to Ruby rather quickly. When Jaune managed to spot her he saw that she was still in her dress as she was loading up her weapon next to where her locker landed in the courtyard outside of the CCT tower on campus.

"Ruby what the hell?" Jaune said as he walked over to her pulling his coat off and loosening his tie.

Ruby spun on her heels and aimed her weapon at Jaune with a look of concern before she realized who it was "Jaune? they are you doing here?"

"I'm following you, what the hell are you doing?" Jaune asked in return holding his hands out to the side.

"I just saw someone sneak into this place, I figured nothing good would come of it, so here I am?" Ruby said as she turned towards the CCT entrance and started walking.

Jaune in dramatic fashion started to roll his sleeves up as he walked along side and pushed a button on his scroll dropping his own locker on the path. he walked past it as it opened and grabbed his gauntlets from it as they walked by. "So did you get a look at what we might have in there?"

"Yeah no idea Jaune sorry" Ruby smiled.

"Sounds good, well save me a dance after this okay?" Jaune said as he deployed the blades of his gauntlets.

Both students walked into the CCT tower, not knowing what to expect...

* * *

The CCT tower itself was dark that evening, Normally there would be at least some kind of lighting on all hours for the night staff but as Jaune and Ruby entered the building with weapons at the ready, Jaune in particular was hit with a couple smells that made his stomach turn.

"I smell blood and burnt flesh, we got someone who knows how to fight with fire in here" Jaune whispered.

Ruby nodded and brought up the rear as the pair walked through the empty tower. Ruby nudged Jaune pointing at the single lit up terminal in the building. Jaune looked around in a 360 arc as Ruby did the same in the opposite direction.

Not seeing anything out the pair approached the lit up terminal. Jaune whispered out a quick "Go check it out, see if you can tell what they were doing on it." before he activated his dust senses to try and pick up anything.

Ruby started to examine the terminal "Something is running on here... let me see if I can figure out what is going on here." Without setting down her weapon she quickly started to check out the program that was running on the computer.

While she worked on her end, Jaune quickly found himself looking in the direction he started to sense a large quantity of active dust. Lit up like a spotlight in his eyes he saw a human shaped figure looking right at him perched on top of one of the terminals. "Contact left! Duck!" Jaune shouted as the figure charged at him with a speed almost comparable to Ruby's.

Maybe even faster than Ruby since their attacker was on top of Jaune thrusting out with a pair of hard light daggers in the time it took Jaune to finish his sentence. Ruby had not even had the time to raise her own weapon to shoot at their attacker before Jaune was forced into a defensive battle blocking repeated strikes from his opponent..

Ruby barely had the time before she had her own problems to deal with as she narrowly avoided being hit by a pair of flaming arrows from the darkness. "Second attacker, south east direction!" Ruby shouted as she broke off from Jaune firing a pair of blind shots into the darkness of the dimly lit center

Jaune found himself putting almost his full effort into parrying the flurry of strikes from his attacker. He took the time to size his opponent up. They had a clearly female look to them, looking about the same height as ruby, and was covered head to toe in robes and fabric making it impossible for him to identify them.

Jaune tried to feint out of a horizontal slash into a straight thrust with his claws, but his opponent simply used his arms to step up and onto to flip over him and attempt to stab downward into his shoulders with it's glowing teal daggers. It was only Jaune's quick thinking by performing an aggressive behind the back parry that pushed his foe back that kept him from being badly wounded right then and there.

Meanwhile Ruby had converted her weapon into her scythe and began her own battle against a hooded figure in a white fang mask who was wielding a pair of strange flaming blades. Ruby was in control of her battle as she used the superior weight of her weapon and the momentum of her spinning maneuvers. Thanks to this she was able to maintain a dominating stance as the battle carried on and kept her opponent flat footed.

That was until the hooded figure sliced her weapon in half. Ruby's eyes went wide in terror at the fact that her weapon was so easily taken out and immediately beat a hasty retreat with what was left of her weapon as her hooded foe started to fire back with flaming arrows. Ruby quickly shouted out to Jaune "We have a problem!" with fear in her voice.

Jaune had finally found his own footing and was almost fighting his opponent on equal footing when he heard Ruby shout out to him, he kicked his opponent back away from him and shouted to ruby "What happened?" Just in time to find himself having to duck behind a terminal as a volley of flaming arrows pelted the area he was standing in.

"My weapon was destroyed!" Ruby shouted out as she found herself also keeping her head down.

Jaune wanted to go and run to her aid. "I'll try to get to you!" as arrows continued to pelt the area going so far as to melt terminal equipment around him.

Meanwhile the two robbed figures met back up to each other and said something to each other before they both nodded to each other and started to retreat back into the shadows with the one shooting arrows continued to lay down a suppressible hail of flaming arrows at the two huntsmen.. The woman with the hard light weapons picked up a desk chair and threw it through a window and the pair fled out through it.

Jaune could only watch it happen as he muttered "They fled? Why? We were dead to rights against them!"

Ruby quickly stood up as Jaune walked towards her holding the half of her weapon she still had including the handle. "God dammit... it's going to take ages to rebuild this."

Jaune walked over to Ruby and said "Sorry... did you get a decent look at either of them?"

Ruby shook he head no and tossed her ruined weapon off to the side "No I didn't...

Jaune glanced over at the terminal as the lights kicked on around them and he heard the sound of Atlas soldiers storming in the front doors. "Yeah... Me Neither."

The screen on the terminal had been replaced by an image of a black queen chess piece.

* * *

The following morning Weiss was called up to speak with Ozpin privately in his office. She found herself feeling rather uncomfortable as she walked into the office. Once she was at Ozpin's desk she tried to smile confidently and asked the Headmaster "You needed to speak with me sir?"

Ozpin took a sip of his morning coffee as he read the reports of the CCT tower break in. That single event was, afterall what inspired him to bump up the timetable for his plan a great deal. "Yes Ms Schnee have a seat."

"Am I in trouble for something?" Weiss asked.

"No, I just wanted to speak to you about a few things." Ozpin said with a disarming smile.

"Such as?" Weiss asked as she tilted her head.

"For starters Ms Schnee. What is your favorite fairy tale?" Ozpin asked with a wide smile.

* * *

 **So like I may have mentioned if your on the r/Rwby discord, this is where the story starts going off the rails. this chapter was I admit, written while I was fighting a head cold so it might (I.E Will) come off as rough, but they show must go on.**

 **I am taking a slight break from AQMW as I plot out the next year of evens for the story to keep the story flow consiustant so don't expect an update for it in the next few days. but I might get a chapter of it up in the next week, we'll see.**

 **Either way, thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day, See you next time.**


	45. Chapter 45

Ozpin sat in his office watching the screen of his terminal intently as Glynda and Ironwood sat nearby in silence. Two days ago a team of students went out on a field trip to investigate the ruins of Mountain Glenn, a failed attempt by Vale to expand out it's borders. The trip on paper was to serve as a field trip as part of their education.

At least that's what two of them were led to believe. The truth of the matter was that one student, an "Agent in training" and his chosen Maiden candidate were sent in to hopefully follow up on a lead they had about the white fangs plot in Vale. One they had hoped could be stopped in its tracks.

It's been two days. for a trip that should have lasted barely the evening...

Ironwood broke the silence "I should consider informing Ms Schnee's family..."

Glynda spoke up "It's to soon James... Oobleck was with them after all."

"Oobleck was kept in the dark..." James countered.

"Give them one more day, then we'll make a public announcement of the missing team." Glynda glanced over at Ozpin. "That is standard protocol for Huntsmen. If a team is three days overdue, then it's time to plan the funerals for the lost."

Ozpin never took his eyes off the screen. on his screen he watched the grayed out names of Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, and Bartholomew Oobleck as he waited for them to light up to show they were back in range of the CCT network.

* * *

Elsewhere in the school Ruby sat with a forlorn look on her face as she thought of her missing friends and sister. Her team had a simple assignment near the school in light of Ruby's weapon still needing repairs after it's destruction at the hands of her unknown attacker a few days before.

Next to her sat Pyrrha Nikos who gently rubbed her partners back "Hey Ruby, it'll be okay, Your sister is part of one of our school's best teams, and Jaune is only second to you in leadership, he'll pull his team out no matter what happens."

Ruby sighed out "Yeah I know, I just can't take my mind off of it... The assignment was supposed to be at worst an overnight stay out in the wild and then return."

Nora and Ren looked at each other Nora spoke up "Ren and I once went a week out in the wilds alone, we turned out okay. I'm sure they are are going to be just fine."

Ruby still couldn't shake the feeling she had a couple days ago. The one where she felt like she wasn't going to see them again.

* * *

For the third time that evening Jaune got slugged in the face. he would have done something about it if he wasn't tied to a chair. Gritting through the pain he spit out blood onto the floor and looked at the large white fang guard standing in front of him and grinned through bloody teeth "My answer is still go fuck yourself."

"That's funny because we didn't ask you any questions Huntsman" Said the large White fang thug as he cracked his knuckles. "But since your so damn chatty, and you've been in here for half a day, maybe you could finally get around to telling us how many more of you are wandering around here?"

"You already got the only answer your getting out of me." Jaune chuckled out.

The larger White fang member leaned back and slugged him in the face hard enough to send his chair stumbling back and causing his head the hit the flower.

"Well that hurt." Jaune said to no one in particular as two of the White Fang goons lifted Jaune up off his back and back into a sitting position.

"Feeling more chatty now? Or do I have to send my ugly friend out to get a spare car battery and Jumper cables." The White fang member smirked as he spoke to him.

"Oh.. No... Anything but that, please, I'm begging you." Jaune said in a completely flat tone.

The white fang member nodded the two others out of the room and pulled up a chair in front of Jaune and sat on it. "You should consider cooperating with us Huntsmen, or else your not leaving this room alive." the White Fang thug chuckled "Well that was never really an option but I'll make your death a whole hell of a lot cleaner. I might even leave your corpse somewhere where they can find it."

Jaune heard someone outside of the room mention something about one of their outer patrols not responding back. He looked right into the face of the White Fang and said with a smile "Well that is mighty generous of you. I'll tell you what buddy, your right, I'm not here alone."

His captor spoke up "Well that's a lovely start young man, keep going and tell me more."

Jaune noted that he and this guy was alone. "You see, I'm actually leading a full team, were here looking for this very base. For the last several hours I've been listening to those assholes talk outside of the big plan involving that train I saw on those freshly rebuilt tracks nearby. What's going to happen now is that the second I get out of here I'm going to link up with my Team, and were going to stop you."

"I would love to see how you plan on doing that, your bleeding all over my floor and your chained to that fucking chair." The White Fang goon scoffed amused at Jaune.

"Well it's simple, I'm going to break your neck, take that knife strapped to your chest kill the two guards outside, sneak across the compound to where my gear is stored, then I'm going improvise from there because that's just what I'm good at." Jaune said matter of factually.

"Yeah well you forgot about how your currently chained to that chair." The White Fang soldier laughed.

"Actually no I didn't." He held up his very much free and scaled covered arms for him to see before he pulled the guard into a choke hold "I broke them when you punched my chair over."

* * *

 _2 days before..._

"So that about sums it up for our briefing" Jaune said holding his scroll and reading from it while wearing his reading glasses. "Were going to pack for a two day expedition and-"

Weiss interrupted Jaune "Why two days? it's an overnight trip."

"Rule one of camping Weiss.." Jaune said with a smile.

"Carry twice as much as you think your going to need.." Weiss said nodding her head. As she loaded an extra pair of socks into her bag.

"Well if that's the case, Blake can you come help me get a few more ration packs for our trip?" Yang said with a smirk to Blake.

"Of course Yang, It'd be my pleasure." Blake said as she stood up.

As if on queue Yang and Blake stepped out of the room. Jaune caught on to this kinda quickly and said as he packed his box of dust into his bag "So there's something we need to talk about?"

"I had a talk with Ozpin the other day..." Weiss said flatly.

Jaune stopped loading his bag. "Weird, I normally hear about that sort of thing."

"Yeah I guess you would have... Gods Jaune you could have said something to me about it." Weiss said as she faced away from him still packing her own bag.

Jaune shook his head and stood up straight "No I really couldn't have…" Jaune turned around and rolled up his sleeve to show the small wrist scar "I have this thing in my wrist that would have told them if I did."

Weiss rolled up her own sleeve and showed Jaune where she had a similar scar now.

"Why did he bring you in?" Jaune asked "It wasn't because we hooked up."

Weiss walked over and sat next to where he was standing on his bed. "No it wasn't the only reason Jaune." Weiss shook her head "He wants me to take over the role of the Fall Maiden... As in right after this trip."

"Hell of an honor he's bestowing on you, but I can't think of who else he'd find for the Job." Jaune said with a half smile.

"Jaune I love you... But... He warned me that there was risks involved." Weiss paused and folded her arms around herself. "He said that there was a chance that this Amber girl. The previous Fall Maiden might partially... or completely overwrite my personality..." Weiss hugged herself tighter "This could kill the person I am now…"

Jaune exhaled out "Of course it wouldn't be risk free. That's just not that old bastard works." Jaune put an arm around Weiss and pulled her close. "I'll support any decision you make you know that right?"

Weiss smiled and rested her head on his chest. "It impacts us both! If it was just me I'd say yes in an instant, but..."

Jaune rubbed her back as he finished her sentence "Your worried what would happen to me if I lost you..."

"I'm worried that I will come out of this, and not be me anymore. I'm worried that you'll end up being the protector of my shell and the person that took it over. I'm worried about you having to spend the rest of your life knowing that the girl you loved died and your now the protector of her body's puppet master."

Jaune's stomach churned thinking about it. "I think I could do it." He looked at Weiss. "I mean if the roles were reversed. Because I know that even if I wasn't me anymore, that I would still be in someway helping protect the world." Jaune leaned in and kissed Weiss on the forehead "Granted I'd be willing to do it even if was just for you alone... So take that for what it is."

Weiss smiled and said "Just promise me that you won't mourn me okay?"

"I won't promise that." Jaune said.

"Please... Promise me that you won't bury yourself in your rage if I don't come out of this as me." Weiss said as she held his hands. "I can't do this otherwise, I won't be another dead girl you spend your days mourning over."

"Weiss your asking for to much..." Jaune said as he traced her thumbs with his own.

"I saw what losing your sisters did to you. It's not fair that you should go through that again, I don't care what it takes for you to not fall down that hole for me. I don't care if you sleep with half of the school to forget me." Weiss took his face in her hands as tears welled up in her eyes. "If I die... forget me, forget me with everything you have!"

Jaune broke eye contact and reached "It won't come to that. I don't care if I have to kill the Gods with my bare hands! It will not come to that!" Jaune stood up and paced.

"Stop thinking that way Jaune, eventually you're going to have to accept that you can't save us all." Weiss said with a sad look on her face. "I'm going to die someday, It might be in the field, it might be from old age... but when that time comes..."

"I promise..." Jaune said looking at the wall "Not to forget you... There's nothing in creation that would make me forget you... But I promise that if anything happens, that I will try to learn to live without you."

Weiss looked at Jaune and smiled a sad smile "I'll take it."

* * *

Oobleck greeted Jaune and his team at the bullhead bays an hour or so later, speaking at a pace faster than most would find comfortable he greeted the team "Students! Excellent your all ten minutes early, I am quite impressed by your initiative and enthusiasm in this exercise!"

"Well you wanted to get this show on the road. You haven't actually mentioned to us where this little trip is taking us." Jaune had a coy smile on his face when he asked with his travel bag slung lazily over his shoulder, he knew where exactly where they were going after all.

"Oh? Well that's quite surprising, I thought you were all informed already." Oobleck said a bit to quickly to be clearly understood. "We are going to no less than the spot of Vale's greatest failure in its history."

Oobleck took his glasses off to clean them "Students, we are going to Mountain Glenn."

* * *

Two days later...

Jaune Choked the life out of the White fang guard who struggled in his grip until his body went limp with a faint crackle from his neck. Jaune shook slightly as he lowered the now very much dead White Fang Interrogator down to the floor and pulled the man's knife from it's sheath on his chest.

"You were such a dick..." Jaune said quietly as he flipped the knife around in his hands. His team was breaking in to the Fang's base, and he needed to make life as easy for them as he could.

"I will not let them do this." Jaune said as he walked behind a yawning door guard with knife at the ready.

Elsewhere in the compound Roman Torchwick smiled as he watched the young Dust Eater work. "Well you will make my evening interesting won't you?"

* * *

 **So this chapter was a bit overdue due to some life issues regarding me needing to paint a room in my house my daughter drew on the walls in. so here we are almost two weeks after the last chapter. Just in time to kick off the Endgame of volume two.**

 **The canon version of the Breach was... to not to put to fine of a point on it. Mediocre. It was built up as the culmination of two volumes of work for the White fang, and something like 12 students stopped the breach in about 15 minutes...**

 **That is... absolutely *not* how I intend on playing the aspect of the story in Dust Eater. The Kingdoms are supposed to be scared absolutely shitless of the mere possibility of the walls of a Kingdom being Breached by the Grimm, and up to this point I'd like to think I did a fair job showing that the Grimm are something to be feared.**

 **the Breach in V2 was 8 teenagers not even old enough to drink. Frankly dabbing on the Grimm as a threat, I never personally felt a sense of urgency, or fear during the breach. It was that sort of disappointment that kinda lead to me taking up the keyboard to write in the first place. Now here we are. So I'll say thanks for reading as allways, and I'll see you all next time.**


	46. Chapter 46

_The Previous Evening..._

Jaune stood at the entrance of a large hole in the ground. He knew that down there was the ruins of a dead city. A failed attempt by Vale to Expand its borders beyond it's own walls.

Down there was Mountain Glenn.

Jaune stood alone. Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Professor Oobleck we're back a few hundred yards away at the camp they set up for the evening. He headed out under the guise of needing the use the restroom and was now waiting for a certain someone to come over to him.

Weiss didn't Force him to wait long. Wearing her gray zip up sweater and blue jeans she walked over to him with a smile and asked him "Waiting long?"

Jaune let a smile slip on his face "Nah. Didn't think they'd let you actually leave the camp without an escort though. What did you tell them?"

Weiss snickered a bit "Well I told them I was just going to go make sure you didn't fall in or something."

Jaune chuckled out loud. "Gods your terrible..."

Weiss smile faded as she walked over to him and look down the hole he was looking down. "So... down there we have the Fang huh?"

"Yeah... I mean it could be a mostly empty storehouse" Jaune chuckled and looked at Weiss "Could also be a super weapon they plan on using on Vale."

"Could be three overweight asthmatic guards." Weiss said as she nodded her head and rested her hands on her hips "Could be an entire army."

"Well guess I better go and take a peak" Jaune said as he slipped on a pair of climbing gloves.

"So..." Weiss asked. "We still going to tell the others you slipped in and follow you down the back path?"

"Yeah lets make it look like you all stumbled on the base, I'll raise hell while you do so." Jaune said with a smile. "In that very me kind of way."

Weiss closed the gap and kissed him firmly "Gods be careful please..."

"I will" Jaune smiled "Don't worry, I'll be careful" He lied...

Weiss watched as Jaune began the climb down the hole to his unknown fate...

* * *

 _Back in the_ _present_

Jaune was free once again to roam the underground base having just moments ago killed his two guards. His plan to let the Fang capture him mostly paid off as he managed to get a strong idea as to why they were down here. But now he needed to recover his equipment. He took in the area to get a feel for it. This part of the abandoned underground town was nestled deep inside of the mountain. Could could easily make out the surrounding area of dilapidated and mostly collapsed structures as he sulked through out White Fang base.

The White Fang base here as he had gathered was not particularly large. They had re-purposed an old train yard and a few surrounding buildings and restored them to functional use. They mostly left the Grimm filled surrounding areas alone. The best Jaunt could figure, the White Fang couldn't even be bothered to put any serious efforts to purge the Grimm from the area as he could hear the sounds of Beowolfs in the darkness outside this base.

 _"There leaving them alive on purpose..."_ Jaune thought to himself as he tried to get across the train yard quietly. Jaune pondered the implications of this thought as he arrived at the makeshift storehouse they set up to store spare weapons and munitions.

Jaune saw no guards outside of the storehouse as he kept low to the ground and slipped inside keeping a careful eye out for sentries and wandering White Fang patrols.

However Jaune didn't expect a pair of White Fang soldiers to be waiting inside loading weapons. There was a moment of shock shared between Trio as the two guards stared at Jaune with his bloodstained knife, Jaune hesitated as they had had assault rifles.

It took them a full thirty seconds before one of them shouted out "The prisoner escaped!" while firing several rounds in the air. Jaune silenced the guard by throwing the knife at the guard lodging the blade to the guards throat.

To little, to late. As the other guard leveled his rifle and began to spray hot death at the now unarmed Dust eater, Jaune ducked down behind a crate near where his armor was. As his cover slowly began to crumble, the surviving guard was quickly joined by several others. He reached over and dragged over a satchel that had the rest of his gear and quickly strapped on his weapons and armor.

"Use the gods damn RPG on him!" Jaune heard one member of the Fang shout out.

"Oh shit." Jaune said as peaked out and saw them aiming a single use rocket propelled grenade launcher at him. Jaune quickly ran for one of the more compromised looking walls and crashed through it. As he ran out he grabbed a Bandoleer of hand grenades.

As he managed to escape the building he pulled a grenade out and through it at his attackers. He landed ungracefully into a drainage ditch and forced all of the air out of his lungs.

The effects of an RPG round striking an ammo dump are impressive to say the least, the explosion tore a pillar of fire all the way up to the ceiling and lit the entire underground area in a golden light.

* * *

It was several minutes later when he started to come to his senses, his ears rang and his head pounded. Small rough hands groped at him and started to drag him. still partially blinded and deafened he struggled against the people dragging him until someone slugged him in the face.

"Yang?" Jaune shouted a bit louder than he planed.

A muffled voice said "Yeah idiot, hold still we're going to treat your ears and eyes!"

Jaune was not sure what he was given to drink with but within seconds his vision cleared and his hearing came back, even the pain in his body started to subside. "Holy crap, what was that stuff?"

"Oobleck's coffee" Weiss said out loud. "Are you okay? Can you walk?"

"I don't think I have a choice! We have dozens of White fang soldiers down here! Not to mention potentially tens of thousands of Grimm!" Jaune said

"I'm thinking closer to hundreds of thousands!" Blake shouted.

"We need to leave then Students!" Oobleck said as he turned and fired a long gout of flame at a pair of approaching white fang soldiers catching the pair on fire. The two soldiers dropped to the ground screaming as the fire clung to them like Napalm.

"Holy crap!" Jaune exclaimed out "You drink that stuff?" as he watched the two Soldiers burn in front of him.

"We got more on the way, How do we get the hell out of here?" Blake shouted to the professor as she fired off an entire magazine from her weapon at a group of approaching

"Wait!" Jaune barked "We're not leaving yet." as he took on his best commanding tone.

"Excuse me, what happened to the small army of White Fang and uncountable number of Grimm?" Yang shouted back.

"I had a chance to figure out what they are doing down here. You see that Train?" Jaune pointed at it.

"Yes Jaune I see the train. Get to the point!" Oobleck demanded.

"That train has been loaded up with Grimm and some kind nerve gas and they plan on ramming it directly into the heart of Vale via an underground railway!" Jaune shouted back "I do not need to explain why we can not let that happen!"

The other four huntsmen stood in shock at what Jaune said. If that was true, the could potentially kill thousands, and unleash and army of Grimm into the heart of the city.

"How do we keep it from leaving the station" Yang asked out loud.

A crackle over the intercom got their attention "Excuse me ladies and gents" The group could hear the voice of Roman Torchwick say. "It seems since you morons don't know how to kill huntsmen quietly the Grimm have been riled up and are starting to descend on our little hideout in base. What I'm trying to say is get acts together and get on the goddamn train before we leave you!"

The group all turned and faced each other. Jaune spoke out first. "Get on that train, we'll figure it out on the damn way!" Jaune said as he drew his sword and pointed at the Train. "Look! I know what i'm asking! The best case scenario is we manage to stop that train and the Nerve gas kills us all in the process."

Jaune lowered his sword, and looked at his group. "But... even if no one ever remembers our names... at least we'll die saving lives."

Yang got up and start to dash at the train. The others quickly got up and started to run at the train. As Jaune shifted to his full powered from much to the brief Surprise of Oobleck. "Wonders never cease Mr Arc? I never thought I would get the privilege of fighting with one of your kind." Oobleck said to Jaune

"I never thought I'd get to fight with one of Beacon's best instructors. so lets call it even" Jaune said as he ran along side of Oobleck.

Flying Bat like Grimm started to descend from the ceiling in the hundreds as the group fell into a formation with Jaune and Oobleck on the outside flanks. As Oobleck fired his weapon wildly into the sky incinerating scores of the bat like swarming Grimm, Jaune unleashed the thunder into the sky clearing his flank of the formation.

Blake took point and fired out ahead of her as Beowolfs and White fang battled each other and them to get to the train. Every single shot Blake fire out struck home either taking a Grimm out of the fight, or a Soldier of the White Fang.

Weiss was in the center and focused on deploying glyph to shield them from any stray fire or small Grimm that managed to get close to them. she would also occasionally fire off her gun-blade at anyone that came close. Weiss suspected that Jaune had a personal reason he wedged her in the center.

Or maybe because they both knew she was to be the next Fall Maiden.

Yang took up the rear firing rounds behind her from her own weapon as the Grimm were beginning to flood into the White Fang base in mass.

It was a Miracle that they even managed to get to the train at all let alone in once piece. But as they arrived the group was split when a a Pack of Beowolfs landed in the middle of them, Jaune and Oobleck without even needing to be asked stopped and started to fight the 12 Grimm pack as the others made it on the train.

Jaune swiftly decapitated one that rushed at him. before being forced to fight defensively away from the rest of his team. Oobleck once again came to his aid firing gouts of flame at the pack driving them back and bringing down two of them. When Oobleck had to reload, Jaune got in front of him accumulating a large amount of his own dust energy and firing a wave of electricity at the pack killing half of them and scattering the rest.

"Most impressive Mr Arc, I'd say your going to earn high marks from this assignment." Oobleck said as they started to run at the now moving train.

Jaune lunged and grabbed on to the second to last car with Oobleck grunting out "I aim to please sir!"

Jaune looked out as a wave of black flowed like a tidal wave over the White Fang base. "My gods... look at them all. There must be tens of thousands of them." He said with a look of horror on his face."

"More like hundreds of thousands young Mr Arc." Oobleck state. "All the more the reason we need to stop this train!"

With Oobleck's words giving Jaune focus he dragged himself to the entrance of the train car. Oobleck had already slipped inside of it with his flamethrower out in front of him. "This car is clear, I suspect that perhaps not nearly as many members of the Fang managed to make it on board."

"Or they had other plans, I doubt every person at that place planed on being used as suicide soldiers for this plan of theirs." Jaune said.

Oobleck stopped. "The worst part of this, is that this only shows how dedicated the White Fang are to their ideals"

"Sir can we please focus on the task at hand, we got maybe five to ten minutes before were under Vale!" Jaune said as he opted to check the car directly ahead of them first finding it empty.

"Think about it Arc. This tunnel was collapsed under thousands of tons of earth when Mountain Glenn failed." Oobleck said

"Get to the point and help me check out the rear car!" Jaune said as he walked back towards the other end of the train car.

"Think of the manpower needed just to clear the tunnel, it would take hundreds of men an equal number of hours just to clear this tunnel. It would take hundreds of men and an impressive amount materials to rebuild the tracks. Not to mention refurbishing this train." Oobleck said.

"Okay so they were patient" Jaune said as he went to the doors between the last two cars and stopped as he looked towards the rear car with a look of shock.

"Mr Arc, you would need an army and years to do what the White Fang has done... This was not some spur of the moment idea of theirs." Oobleck said slowly and deliberately. "This is the culmination of their plans."

Jaune was silent as he opened the door to the rear car and pointed inside of it. "And how long do you think it took to cook all of this up?" He said looking at Oobleck and pointing his thumb at the inside of the train car.

Oobleck looked into the rear car. and saw wall to wall hundred gallon tanks of chemicals. Oobleck counted at least 20 tanks in told. "My Gods... 2000 gallons of a nerve gas that would only take maybe a few drops to kill an entire city block..."

"What do we do! My best guess we have about a minute and and change before were under the city." Jaune said with a pale look on his face.

"That's more than enough time for me to figure out a way for me to neutralize the nerve gas, go back that way a car or two and keep me covered so I can work!" Oobleck demanded as Jaune nodded.

"You do understand that if we allow that to go off..." Jaune said with his voice cracking

"Then the problem would cease to be ours before we hit the floor I would imagine Mr Arc. Leave me I will make sure this gas is never released." Oobleck said with a smile and a cracking voice.

Jaune knew exactly what he was saying. Jaune looked at Oobleck with a second and swallowed hard. "I see, In that case sir it's been an honor" Jaune said with a wavering voice as he stepped back out of the car.

As Oobleck began to start making modifications to his Flamethrower. Oobleck reached over and took the grenade sling from Jaune. "Please send my regards to Ozpin and advise him that I gave all of you top marks for your performance today. Now run gods damn you!"

Jaune hesitated for a moment before turning and running. he got a full two cars away before the world turned white for him and reality simply went away for the second time that day.

In Ozpin's office. He was still watching the monitors tracking the condition of his lost team through their scrolls. the scrolls finally picked up their signals moments ago, but he couldn't locate the group. More than once in the the last 15 minutes the status of the Students slipped from the teal blue "Fine" condition to a yellow "Pain or distress" condition.

Oobleck's readout had turned red. Ozpin knew exactly what that meant. Ironwood covered his mouth and Glynda covered her face and turned away from the monitor letting out a sob.

Bartholomew Oobleck was dead. He would be the first that would die during the events that were transpiring before them.

He would not be the last...

* * *

 **So it begins, The First parts of the Breach forgive me if my Author notes are not as robust as they normally would be, but I don't want to detract from the chapters. I will say that I am having a blast writing this part of the story though, and well...**

 **No one is off limits now...**

 **As always thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.**


	47. Chapter 47

Weiss cautiously walked with Blake at somewhere around the midpoint of the train. They had lost sight of Jaune and the Professor when the Beowolf had ambushed them just outside of the train, and Yang somehow ended up farther up the train from them having managed to board first.

Blake was covering the pairs rear with her sheath blade in one hand and her gun-dagger in her other. "I hope the others are okay." Blake said as she took a knee and watched behind them aiming at the door.

Weiss cautiously walked up to the front car as she aimed her gun blade in Gun configuration at the door in case someone came from the other side. She kept quiet as her nerves were long since shot. For all she knew, she just left her boyfriend and one of the schools teachers to die to a Grimm horde the likes that haven't been seen since the days of the great war.

She could hear the occasional sound of claws on metal or a terrified shriek followed by gun fire coming from somewhere else on the train.

Weiss hesitated feeling her emotions begin to crack in her shell "Did we... Did we leave them to die just now?" Weiss said to Blake without looking.

"Keep moving forward, Yang's going to need our help." Blake only said in reply.

Weiss nodded and took a deep breath to bury her feelings as she began to march up to the door and reach out for the controls to open it.

Just as she was about to open the door the door burst open as small group of White Fang tore into the room firing blindly behind them "Run, get the hell out of here it's right behind us!" one of them shouted to the rest of their team as he kept running.

One of them stopped and pulled out a large two handed chainsword. at this point there was no doubt that the White Fang soldiers saw Blake and Weiss. But whatever it was that they were fleeing from was a bigger issue.

That was a bit concerning for Weiss and Blake to say the very least.

"Fight or die children! We got a real monster coming" The White fang solder shouted while revving his Chain sword up. As a growl somehow louder than the chainsaw could be heard from the next car over could be heard.

The thing that tore it's way from the forward cabins to the one where the now Trio now stood along. They figured that the massive Grimm must of been 7 feet or so tall, covered in white bone plating with very little seams or breaks in the armor. It was clearly humanoid with an almost hammerhead shark like head, tapering off in a T shape with two eyes off of each of the sides of it's head. the plates on it's right arm were thicker and wider almost forming a sort of shield around the arm.

The Grimm's left arm ended in a massive crab like pincer claw, one large enough to wrap cleanly around a fully grown adult White Fang Soldiers as evident by the White Fang soldier it was holding in its claw. With a seemingly trivial amount of effort the Claw clamped closed and effectively crushing the White Fang solder in half killing them instantly, that was if they were not already dead.

"What the hell is that, do we have anything that can hurt it?" Weiss asked as she began to step back away from it.

"I-I don't know, I've never seen anything like it." Blake stammered out before turning to the chainsaw wielding White Fang soldier "Do you know what can kill it?"

The Chainsaw wielding Grunt charged, Weiss readied a shield glyph to aid the chainsaw grunt if it was needed. Banesaw slammed the chainsaw into the creatures right arm and tried to let the blade do it's thing. It quickly became apparent however that the armored bone plates were to heavy and to strong for even the Chainsword wielded by the White Fang known as Banesaw to cut through.

The massive Armored Grimm responded by swinging its claw arm at Banesaw trying to catch him off guard, the only thing it got hold of thought was a glyph. Banesaw backed up quickly as he saw the glyph shatter mere seconds later.

"Okay this is not good!" Blake shouted "I know his weapon, it's supposed to be able to cleave through tank armor!"

Weiss quickly looked around and sized up the situation. "I have an idea!" She said as she looked at a large side hatch "Big guy, I'm going to try and freeze it, push it off the damn train!"

Banesaw looks at it and stabs the sword into the floor of the train car. "I can get behind this idea!" as he faces off with the large Grimm.

Weiss slotted in some ice dust into her weapon and prepared to use it to try and freeze it in place. "Blake, get it looking at you!" Weiss shouted as she prepared to empty the Ice vial at the Grimm.

Blake obligated by firing a long burst of bullets, followed by throwing her weapon at the Grimm before snapping it back to her hand by the ribbon on it. It didn't do a goddamn thing to the Grimm but it at least caused it to turn and face her.

Banesaw ran and shoulder checked the Grimm in it's exposed back slightly knocking it off balance just in time for Weiss to project a blast of freezing ice at the Grimm that clung to it like a straight Jacket.

Without being prompted to, Blake threw her weapon at the door controls for the loading door next to the Grimm to open it, As the Grimm began to freeze solid Banesaw with a running start Ran to Slam into the Grimm with both feet. Weiss quick cast a glyph on it to reduce it's personal gravity as Banesaw did causing the massive Grimm to fly out the side of the train car.

"Well that problem solved." Weiss chuckled out she looked over at Banesaw. "So uh..."

Banesaw picked up his weapon. "Right... So i'll just keep going down train and pretend I didn't see you o-" Banesaw was suddenly interrupted when half of his face came off from a round going through the back of his head and out the front.

Weiss's eyes went wide in horror and she let out an startled shriek before she looked over at Blake still holding the smoking gun.

Weiss shouted out in a surprising anger "Why Blake!? He Helped us!"

"He was also one of Adam's lieutenants." Blake said with a stammering shake in her voice "One who was known for his ruthlessness and sadism when it came to fighting. He would had rammed that sword of his through you the second you turned your back on him!" Blake worked up to a shout as she pointed at the bloody corpse on the ground.

Weiss tried not to look at the body for to long, she shook her head and closed her eyes to ask "Do you think that Grimm is dead?"

Blake said as she peered further up the train saying "Doubt it... but it will be a few miles away from us by the time the Train stops-"

Blake was interrupted by the sounds of screeching metal as the train began to shake violently. eventually the sensation of it crashing into something could be heard as the world went dark for them.

* * *

While Weiss and Blake were battling the Grimm Mid-train and While Oobleck and Jaune were finding themselves in the rear, Yang ended up in the front of the train and was trying to rush the control room.

Yang knew that other members of her team were further back on the train, she had no idea what the status of Jaune and Oobleck or the others were. They all might have been dead for all she knew.

Yang rushed a pair of White fang soldiers as she blitzed through the cars, she was swiftly able to take them both down with a series of punches and grapples. It would be difficult to feel pity for a pair of terrorists that were manning a train that was about to ram nerve gas into the heart of a major city. But the casual observer might feel a twinge of guilt as Yang neatly grabbed the sword arm of one of one soldier as the tried to drive a blade through her. Yang response to the attack was to snap The soldiers the arm at the elbow with a swift strike to the arm. Just before she kicked out his right knee.

Then the first Soldier fell like a sack of potatoes screaming in agony, the second one tried to flurry a series of swings at Yang. Yang was easily able to evade the admiringly skilled swings aimed at her before she countered by employing her shotgun gauntlet and blowing out the White fang grunts kneecap. The second grunt went down screaming as well, both would live assuming that she was able to stop this god damn train in time.

Stopping the train was all that mattered, Yang kept running towards her goal, she was delayed twice more by the White Fang. Those encounters with the White Fang went down with equal ease as her first opponents had. Eventually she managed to make it to the front of the train more or less unscathed but slightly tired. Without even checking to see if he conductors compartment door was even locked she violently kicked the door in.

As Yang stepped in she pointed both shotgun gauntlets as the man in the conductors seat shouting "Stop this damn train or your losing your head!"

The Conductor turned his chair revealing himself to be none other that Roman Torchwick while speaking "Well, Well little huntsmen, I didn't suspect any of you to make it this far."

"Torchwick I knew you were working with the White Fang! But this is insane even for you!" Yang shouted as her arm shook slightly. Something Roman picked up on.

"Of course, I'm the brains behind a lot of the best schemes in Vale good looking." Roman said as he started to stand up. "I'm sorry, I forgot. What was it you wanted me to do?"

"Stop this god damn train now!" Yang shouted her order a second time thrusting her gauntlets at Torchwick for emphasis.

"Ah right, lets see here." Roman sad as he scooped up his cane and casually shot the control console. with a laugh "Oh, it seems my hand slipped. My bad."

Yang started to fire both gauntlets at Torchwick forcing Roman into a defensive stance. Roman may not be the strongest fighter but he knows where not to be in a firefight. Taking care to not be in the direct path of Yang's weapons and calculating the odds of her shooting at a given direction at any given time he closed the gap and jabbed his cane directly into her chest sending her off balance before he twirling it around and catching her in the side of the head with it. following it up with a roundhouse kick to the same spot on Yang's head.

It was close, damn close but Yang manged to forcefully block the kick and send Torchwick stumbling back. Yang Fired both Gauntlets behind her to push herself forward as she laid a solid four hit combo on Roman.

Roman managed to slap the last strike aside and fired a shot from his Cane into the floor causing yang to stumble back as small bits of metal bit into her bare legs. A Trivial injury, but one that was enough for Torchwick to exploit, flicking his cane around her smacked Yang in the face again with the Cane before using his cane to hook and pull the young huntsmen off her feet by her left leg.

Yang was on her back with a black eye and bleeding lightly from both legs. Roman was bleeding from a busted lip and a bloody, maybe broken nose. "Not bad Huntsmen, but your not my first Rodeo" Torchwick said as the he leveled the weapon at Yang's shocked face.

Just as he was about to pull Trigger. A loud rumble was heard from the rear of the train. which was then followed by a violent shaking that neither fighter could stand for.

The last thing Yang saw before the world went dark for a moment was the front of the train launch up and the sight of a blue sky...

* * *

Minutes Later Jaune woke up looking at the clear blue sky, he could tell right away he was laying in wreckage of the train car he was in. His ears were ringing as he tried to force himself to his feet only to let out an uncontrolled shout as he put pressure on his right leg. Jaune stumbled and rested against a surviving seat clinching his right leg. As he carefully examined his leg he saw the shard of metal that was sticking out of it.

"Fuck... Can't walk on that." he said with a pained warble in his voice. Jaune knew what he had to do as he pulled off his belt and bit down on it. His breathing quickened and he started to pump himself up before he converted his left arm to it's true shape and grabbed onto the shard of metal and began to pull it out of his leg. As the unyielding pain shot up his entire leg causing him to scream into his belt he bit down on it to try and keep himself from stopping. once he felt the shard give and come out he held it up to his face. With tears in his eyes he took a moment and looked at it.

The shard was a good 4 inches long and jagged. Jaune Tossed it aside and reached into his travel pack and pulled out his first aid kit. He packed the wound with a Gauss strip, poured some antiseptic on it causing him to shout out a second time before finally bandaging the wound up and splinting it off with a couple broken pipes he found laying nearby..

As Jaune stood up and limped out to the opening in the side of the train he began to hear a siren. Using his sheathed sword as a makeshift cane he pushed himself out of the train.

As he lowered himself to pavement he began to hear something akin to a series of Air raid sirens. Then he realize something unfortunate. "Oh gods... I'm in the middle of Vale."

An Voice could be heard over the sounds of the various alarms and Sirens call out, the pleasant but professional sounding female voice said in a clear monotone fashion...

 _All citizens of District 12, Attention please! A Grimm breach is in progress. All exits to the district have been sealed except for the exit to district nine. If you are able to arrive at the district nine gate please do so in an orderly fashion. Bring only what you can carry. Any and all looters will be executed without hesitation. If you are unable to reach the district nine gate then attempt to shelter in place if you have sufficient food and water available to you. Attempt to control your emotions as the Grimm are attracted to your negative thoughts._

 _Remember Vale Endures._

Jaune turned to face the large hole in the earth from where the train clearly exploded through the ground. He could hear the message repeated endlessly and the horrid sirens playing out all over the district. He watched As the Grimm started to flood out of the hole. Jaune placed a hand over his face and pulled it back with blood on it. He had a bad cut just over his right eye. he also had a bad leg injury. Knowing that running was not an option, he turned to face the growing numbers of Grimm as they started to slowly take notice of them. Jaune drew his sword into a two handed stance, Shifted to his full Dust Eater state and watched as the Grimm started to rush towards him.

* * *

 **With the end of this chapter the Breach has begun. The early notes for this has this pegged as long running arc that's going to take more than a small number of chapters to resolve. I've also been planing this story arc since the middle of the V1 chapters and have been specificity manipulating events so we can have this event play out this way. I hope you all enjoy the wild ride I put you all on for this event.**

 **In any rate, I'll see you all next chapter. thanks again for reading!**


	48. Chapter 48

_Day 1…._

Alarms sounded off in Beacon. Not the fire alarms that they would sometimes hear. The fire alarms were more of an old style school bell that would let out a sort of "Bring" noise when they went off.

No these were the heavier and more attention grabbing Klaxons that they had monthly drills on. The scramble alarms were what snapped every student and staff member in Beacon to alert. All students and even guests at beacon who had Huntsmen training knew what they needed to do, Retrieve your gear and get to the transports.

Ruby and her team were already seated when Coco's team followed shortly after. Ruby cradled her weapon. Just back from being rebuilt. Still the Same Crescent Rose it had always been, but now with a slightly larger magazine and was now able to fire three round bursts with a superior recoil suppression system built into it.

Once a student boarded the transport and found a seat, they would pull down a safety bar that once latched sent a signal to the pilot that the Huntsman was locked in, once the last of Coco's team was in. The pilot was given the all clear to take off.

Each seat had a small Monitor built into it for in-flight briefings. A feature that was absolutely critical in times such as this. The others treated this like a typical drill once they were seated. Ruby watched Nora and Ren crack jokes to each other, and Even Coco's team seemed relaxed. Neither Ruby nor Pyrrha could shake the feeling something was off. In all past drills, they never actually boarded a running transport. The drone of the idling engines was unnerving to the relatively inexperienced Huntsmen.

Everyone went silent when they felt the transport start to lift, Ren looked at the others with a slightly nervous sounding "Wait, is this real?

They didn't have to wait long, On screen the headmasters face appeared to address the students and assorted huntsmen in the transports….

" _Students and assorted staff of Beacon, as you have hopefully noticed by now, this is in fact not a drill. As we speak the city of Vale, our home city, is under attack in the city's twelfth district. We have been informed that the Vale 9th and 12th Armies are mobilizing to take the threat head on."_

The screens turned to a map of the district overlayed in blue with a flood of information on it. A large number of red dots were streaming out from the center of the map, and a smaller assortment of green dots were taking positions and holding critical choke points.

" _What you are seeing is an estimation of the situation on the ground, we do not know exactly how many Grimm have entered the city, only that they are flooding from a hole in the ground of the twelfth district marketplace. Radio transmission and intercepting scroll calls already paints a terrible picture on the ground. As of now, the civilian death toll already exceeds three hundred. All of you will receive locations to hold to help keep a safe and clear path for civilians to escape the district."_

" _Make no mistake, you are not going to be able to stem this flood of Grimm with a handful of Huntsmen. We currently project at the current rate of entry, their will be in the ballpark of 7,000 Grimm in the area of the Breach by the time you hit the ground. I would expect that number to multiply by a factor of five by the end of the hour."_

Ruby looked around at the worried faces of her team. Pyrrha spoke up "Mother of gods, Grimm in the city proper…"

"It's never happened before." Coco said. "Vale is a gods damn fortress, for them to be coming from the underground means something or someone baited them into the city."

" _At this time for the sake of full disclosure, I must also report on the sad fact that as of an hour ago, we have confirmed the death of Professor Oobleck as well. We believed he died in an effort to prevent this outbreak from taking place. Now stand by for individual team orders."_

Ruby covered her mouth and gasped out as tears filled her vision. "Oh gods, Jaune's team was with him… Yang…"

"Your sister will be alright, she's just as good of a huntsmen as we all are." Velvet said from across the way. "Ozpin would have reported their deaths to us as well if that was the case right?"

Pyrrha reached over and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder "She's right, Ozpin is tactically telling us this, because he knows it'll piss us off and rally us to fight harder." Pyrrha smiled affectionately at Ruby "Jaune's team are some of the school's finest warriors. I'm sure they are down there fighting it out already!"

The team's monitors blinked on with instructions. They knew they only have a scant few moments to familiarize themselves with their goals and deployment locations. Ruby read hers to herself

 _TEAM PRRN: HOLD JUNCTION 13 UNTIL RELIEVED OR ORDERED TO PULL BACK. 9TH ARMY ELEMENTS TO ASSIST, GROUND BOMBARDMENT TO BE CALLED ON LOCATION IN THE EVENT THAT THE JUNCTION IS OVERRUN BY THE GRIMM. THIS IS TO ALLOW OTHER JUNCTIONS TIME TO REINFORCE THEIR POSITIONS. REMEMBER, VALE ENDURES._

"Wait they want us to call down an artillery strike in the event that we get overran?" Ren shouted out "That's insane!"

"If we get overran were dead anyways." Coco said "It makes sense, if were going to die, take as many of the bastards out with us as we humanly can!"

Ruby just ignored the chatter and reviewed what they would have access two, the districts of vale were designed to be easy to hold. Most underestimate the City of Vale. Most fail to recognize that Vale is one of the oldest kingdoms still standing. A shining light in a sea of Grimm controlled hell. When one thinks of Military strength. Your average person does not think of the Kingdom of Vale.

Most forget that the city of Vale is the largest single unbroken fortress in Remnant. Most forget that the current 25 districts of the city are divided up by it's 70 foot walls linked up by the gates of the hardest materials possible not because Vale is a city. It's because Vale is a fortress.

Most people fail to understand that the reason the roads of the city are so narrow, so winding, so confusing to outsiders, is because they would confound an invading force.

Ruby felt some comfort at the idea of this. She knew that it would make it easier for her team to hold a position against a numerically larger foe. She started to review the specs of her support teams. It looked like she is to expect some light Anti air batteries to fend of flying grim. She smiled at that idea. Ruby remembered reading that that every single building taller that three stories has mounting points on the roofs to mount an anti aircraft weapon at a moments notice. Ruby also recalled reading about how every building above two stories have alcoves where military snipers could see targets walking virtually anywhere in their view.

And yet, as she tried to commit to memory the exhaustive charts and tables, about manpower, ammunition supplies. Not to mention a list of all available Medical supplies her post would have access to. She felt tears running down her cheeks. She was terrified. Not just for herself and her team, but for her lost friends, who might have already been slaughtered by the Grimm down there. Ruby made it a point to herself, that if they were all dead, that she would personally make sure that every last Grimm down there would pay for it.

* * *

Back at Beacon Ozpin's office was awash in activity, Ironwood was already on his way to Vale to lead his own forces in the cities defense. His office had been temporarily converted to a war room of sorts. Using hidden consoles and terminals in the walls, as well as a large monitor normally hidden in the ceiling of the office. The large Monitor was divided up into two seconds, a large map that tracked the Vale military movements in the affected district as well as displaying the projected locations of Grimm based on gathered Metadata from the field. As well as tracking the deployments of his students and teaching staff that went into the field.

Only Instructor deemed too old to reasonably be expected to fight stayed at the school. Port and Glynda were acting as his aids in this trying time.

The other half of the Large monitor displayed real time reports from deployed teams, already reports such as "GRIMM SIGHTED AT 1ST JUNCTION POINT" and "REINFORCEMENTS REQUESTED BY SURROUNDING DISTRICTS TO AID 9TH AND 12 IN HOLDING THE 9TH GATE"

Ozpin however dividing his attention between there and a monitor at his desk showing the real time health reports of all of his students deployed. He focused on 4 names on the list. Three of them were grayed out denoting that there was no present way to determine the overall health and aura levels of the students. Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, and Weiss Schnee, were in effect unknowns at this point.

Only Jaune Arc's condition could be read, and he was showing an alarming orange color to his name to denote severe injury. Ozpin expanded his window and saw that his vital signs were well if not elevated.

"He's fighting to the death out there" Ozpin noted catching Glynda's attention.

"Who is?" Glynda looked before she noted Jaune's vitals with a look of dismay "Ah… I see… Poor kid…."

Ozpin looked on dispassionately at the reports as they flooded in. "I'm sure he won't be the only one…."

* * *

Meanwhile at the area known as junction 13. The Sergeant on duty watched as his men built up sandbag fortification and sighted up their kill zones for when the Grimm came. Other troopers in his squad were rushing civilians through with promises of safety of they followed the marked routes in the evacuation protocols.

The soldiers of the Vale army stood tall in their long sky blue waistcoats. Most of them had Gas masks hanging off their kit somewhere, a few actually wore them almost as if they were expecting the Grimm to fire of a chemical weapon of two. Every man had a standard Semi-auto Combat rifle fitted to fire a 5.56MM ballistic tipped round. Many troopers opted for something with a bit more impact and thus a heavier 30-06 chambered rifle that fired off explosive ammunition.

After all there really is no such thing as overkill against the Grimm. Each trooper also had a standard darker blue colored chest plate, often with extra ammo magazines strapped to their waists on there chests.

The corporal on radio shouted out "Sir, Junction 12 is being overrun as we speak. Were the next Junction to try and hold!"

The Sergeant gritted his teeth, The Grimm were striking in an almost organized manner. He suspected if they had the ability to plan, he's assume they were funneling the fleeing civilians through his district to make them easier to hunt and kill.. Of course that was madness, The Grimm don't think or Organize, they raid, the rush like mindless animals. "What's keeping them from hitting us corporal!"

"Sir a civilian said that they glimpsed a huntsmen trying to fightback and buy time." A private shouted out.

"Stop chatting up the civies and watch your fucking zone!" The Sergeant barked out "Any huntsmen caught alone out in that horde is dead already!"

The Squad was silent and watching ahead as they awaited death to come flooding down the road any moment. The corporal on radio called out "Sir, we got word that Beacon is sending huntsmen support. ETA fifteen to twenty minutes!"

"The we hold this gods damn spot men! I don't care if we have to turn the AA guns on the Grimm, we hold this gods damn spot!" The Sergeant barked out. As if punctuated for emphasis, the thunderous report of lightning flashed from nearby.

"The fuck, it's a clear day, where did that come from?" One of the soldiers shouted out.

The crowd was quick to pick up the pace when the first roars were heard, The soldiers noted a single person limping in their direction with a small band of Beowolfs on his tail.

"Fire-team! Light those Grimm up!" The Sergeant shouted as his men leveled and fired their rifles splitting the air with the cracking sounds of their guns.

The tall blood splattered person stopped when it became clear he couldn't outrun the grim and held his hand out causing a crack of electrical fury to fly out and fry the last members of the pack. The man, now clearly visible as a Dust eater limped to the fire lines of the military squad.

The soldiers, most of them having never even seen a Dust Eater lowered their guns in awe. The sergeant walked over to the wounded Dust eater and poke up. "Hell of a fireworks show kid."

The gasping youth, leaning on his sword, his yellow hair partially turned silver in streaks. "Thanks, I need a line to Beacon if possible, I have information for the headmaster."

"You need a CASEVAC to the rear lines to get that leg checked out son." the Sergeant said to the young man "Are you a huntsmen?"

The young Dust Eater stood up straight. "Yeah, my name is Jaune Arc and I know how the Grimm got inside the city..."

* * *

 **Hey everybody, so I don't have to much to say about this chapter today. Only that it came out surprisingly easy. Writing was overall thrown for a loop in the last week due to my wife's recent operation so hopefully it doesn't read too rough, but it is what it is. As always thanks again for reading, and I'll catch you all next time.**


	49. Chapter 49

_Day 1….._

Jaune had managed to get Ozpin on the line thanks to a scroll he borrowed from one of the soldiers. The one thing he had time to do was give Ozpin a call as a Vale field medic worked on his injured leg. Jaune spent the time waiting for Ozpin to pick attempting to tune out the medic as they lectured him about how close he came to having to lose the leg due to sepsis. The medic kept rambling on about it even as Jaune finally got Ozpin on the line and explained the situation to him in detail.

"Yes sir, that's the situation in a nutshell, we need to warn people that the White Fang staged this entire attack on Vale." Jaune said to Ozpin over the scroll.

"I'll let Ironwood and the other general's know to be on full alert for other smaller White fang operations as we continue to push the Grimm back." Ozpin said "I'll also have a new scroll sent to you since your scroll was damaged during the battle."

"Do we have any idea if the rest of my team is okay?" Jaune said with a clear tone of concern in his voice.

"We do not know what the status of your team is Mr Arc. When the Huntsmen team gets dropped into your area I expect you to pull out of the battlefield to recover from your injuries." Ozpin said with a commanding tone.

"No." Jaune replied.

"Excuse me, did you just tell me no Mr Arc?" Ozpin

"I did, I'm not leaving the front line until my team is accounted for." Jaune stated. "If I recall you have my under orders to protect one member of my team in particular, I can't do that in a hospital bed."

There was a pause before Ozpin spoke again "Your quite fortunate that your correct in that case. But I expect you out of Vale as soon as your team is fully accounted for." Ozpin ordered and ended the call.

Jaune handed the scroll back to the officer that he borrowed it from with a quick "Thank you."

"So your planning on riding it out with us with a bad leg Huntsmen?" The Sergeant asked directly.

"If even a fraction of the Grimm that I saw under that mountain attacks Vale, were going to need everyone we can spare out here fighting." Jaune said directly.

The Sergeant nodded "Then get the fuck up huntsmen, we got Grimm to kill."

Jaune smiled and pulled himself to his feet as he pulled out some yellow dust to Eat and recharge.

Most of the soldiers around him tried to not stare at Jaune as he chewed up and swallowed the dust rock. The Radioman did ask "So, got to ask, you know any of the Dust Eater terrorists that were working with the Fang?"

"My father is the one leading him, we don't speak much as a result" Jaune said as he kept an eye down the road waiting for the Grimm to start appearing around the bend of the road.

The Radioman was about to say something before the loud cracking of sniper fire started to be heard off from the nearby alcoves. Then a call over the radio then alerted the squad as one of the snipers in one of the nearby alcoves called out "Ready up company a large number of Grimm are approaching from the southwest!"

"Incoming swarm! Ready up you apes, you want to live forever!" The sergeant shouted out as he walked over to Jaune "You going to turn the tide Dust Eater?"

"I'll do my part Sergeant." Jaune said as he drew his sword and let electricity crackle from his other hand.

"You'll need a gun" The Sergeant said.

"I'm sure I'll be able to pick one up if I need to." Jaune said grimly.

The Vale soldiers took up positions in firing lines, many of them laid out their swords next to them or in a place where they could pick it up and start slashing in a pinch. Jaune found himself leaning on his good leg sword in hand as he waited for them to come. The Sergeant then shouted out a rally cry "Remember men! Vale fucking endures."

"Vale endures!" The Junction said as one.

* * *

Several minutes later as they waited for the Grimm to come the solders present started to hear the Grimm cry out in fury as they approached their position. Once in a while they would also hear radio chatter calling out sightings or casualty reports from Grimm attacks against other Junctions before a pleasant sounding voice chimed in over the chatter. "All Junctions be advised Grimm flyers have been sighted in the area in force, AA batteries are directed to watch the skies."

"Grimm to the Southwest!" One private shouted out as the first trickles of Grimm could be seen rounding the corner. Jaune identified it as a Beowolf. The Beowolf was quickly joined by the rest of it's pack and several Ursa's and other assorted Grimm. They quickly spotted Jaune and the rest of the Vale Soldiers and began to rush in mass.

"Light them up! The Sergeant shouted as he started to fire away with his combat rifle. The other soldiers started to fire their own weapons. Mostly variations of the same standard infantry rifle or in pairs operating machine guns.

As the Grimm charged in force it quickly became apparent that they wouldn't be able to be killed fast enough to slow the tide about to wash over them. Jaune made the choice to charge out and rush the center. As Gunfire whizzed around him he slammed into the first Beowolf knocking it back and quickly decapitated it with a swing of his sword. Jaune then turned and slashed at a second Beowolf that was directly behind the first downing it as his sword cut through the muscles of it's leg.

An Ursa almost got the drop on him before a sniper's bullet took out the side of its head. He could also perceive other Grimm being taken out in numbers by the infantry squad behind him but Jaune knew it was only a matter of time before they were overrun. Swing after swing, second after second Jaune pushed on as he cut through the Grimm in a slow retreat back to the line of soldiers behind them.

Jaune couldn't hear much over the furious howls of the Grimm that were swarming over him. He was able to make out the sounds of gunfire and the repeating thudding sounds of nearby Anti air fire from nearby gave him an idea of the situation around him.

Jaune realized he needed to go all out, and focused his Dust into through his entire body and expelled it almost as an explosion of electrical fury around him. It was enough to create some breathing room and he managed to retreat back to the Line just in time for the Sergeant to call for his soldiers to take up swords and Bayonets.

"Not bad Dust eater. You might have actually bought us a whole 30 seconds of life for that." the Sergeant shouted out to Jaune as he skewered a Boarbatusk on his bayonet and fired twice into its stomach.

"So we were supposed to get a huntsmen team to back us up?" Jaune panted out as he fired a wide spread of Electricity at a batch of creeps that was rushing the line.

"Were not expecting the for about ten mikes!" The Sergeant shouted back before turning to his radio officer "RTO, call Arty for grid coordinates Gamma two-nine Xray three-two Yukon one-six-eight! Tell them to fire for effect!"

"How close is that to where we are." Jaune said as he slashed away at a Beowolf that managed to get up close and personal to him.

"It's very much danger close, but it's not as dangerous as the Grimm!" The Sergeant shouted as he skewered another Grimm.

Both men heard the shouts of pain as one of the soldiers fell back with a Beowolf taking off a portion of his left shoulder and his entire left arm with its teeth, although other soldiers were quick to kill the Beowolf, the unlucky private bled out in seconds after he his the floor.

This had a rather negative effect on morale for the soldiers involved, shots became sloppier and more rushed as panic began to take hold. Even Jaune found himself taking more cautious actions in his fighting style as the Grimm never seemed to stop coming.

Then Vale brought the fire. Jaune heard the whistle of incoming mortar rounds and saw soldiers hit the dirt prompting him to do the same. The very world seemed to explode in light as the titanic sound of an artillery round detonating down the road went off in his ears. Jaune could see the effect it had, shredding Grimm in blast zone. The sound was joined by two more similar explosions down the road as the glass shattered in nearby windows and felt the pressure from the detonations in his chest even several hundred feet down the road.

That was all it took to bring Jaune and the vale forces back into the moment as ran through a Beowolf that got too close to him. The rest of the soldiers got back to their feet and got back to shooting at anything with dark fur that they could see. Jaune's vision was obscured by the dust in the air that was kicked up by the artillery rounds that pulverized the area down the road.

"Good effect! Stand by!" The RTO shouted into the Radio before he turned to the Sergeant and shouted a warning "Sir! We got Grif-"

The RTO Never finished his sentence as the Wounded but still very lethal Griffon landed on top of the RTO smashing him into the ground and sending his radio tumbling out of his reach.

Jaune tried to charge the Griffon to take him out only to be knocked back by something heavy smashing into his chest. Jaune looked at what hit him to see the face of the RTO locked in fear. Jaune quickly snapped out of the shock of realizing that the Griffon just hit him with the RTO's torso and right arm. "Worry about the horde I'll take the Griffon!" Jaune shouted as he charged the winged beast.

Jaune closed the distance as the winged creature charged Jaune swiping at him repeatedly with its claws. Jaune was able to evade the bulk of them, the one he couldn't quite evade fully he blocked with his sword. However even blocking the strike Jaune found himself being sent into a stumble backwards and off balance.

The Griffon leapt skyward At Jaune with its claws out in front of him. Jaune rolled forward under it's leap as he pulled Issac's chain whip off his belt. Jaune turned toward his enemy and whipped the chain at the Griffon as it turned and took to the sky again. Jaune managed to loop the chain around one of it's legs. Jaune then in a single motion jerked down on the whip while electrifying the metal chain causing the griffon to be both shocked and pulled to the ground with a mighty slam slam.

Jaune kept channeling his dust in the chain shocking the Griffon as he approached the mighty beast before he was close enough to put the beast down by driving the sword strike into the creatures head.

The Grimm however served its purpose, the distraction it created and the killing of the Radio officer was enough to throw the Junction into a severe disarray that the Grimm took advantage of. Panic began to take over as the Grimm began to swarm the defenses the Vale forces had carefully fought to defend.

"Gods dammit! We can't hold them off any longer, the swarm is to thick!" The Sergeant shouted as he fired desperately into the horde.

Jaune feeling dust exhaustion and his own injuries throbbing at him prepared to perform and all out attack with his Dust power. "Everyone fall back behind me!" Jaune shouted as he accumulated Dust into his arms for several seconds. "Please let this be enough to buy us time!".

Once Jaune felt like he finally had enough due energy stored up Dust he pushed his arms out and expelled a wave of Electric fury in the direction of the horde.

The blast momentarily blinded everyone involved and kicked up an impressive amount of the black smoke produced by Grimm as they dissolved into nothing. Once the Smoke cleared Jaune's heart sank, while he vaporized a couple dozen of them, it absolutely drained him of Dust to do so.

And he could see that he barely put a dent into them. The Sergeant pulled out a single use flare gun out of his coat. One that was top be used in the event that a Junction was overran. He aimed it up knowing that once he fired it off Vale would obliterate their position with a barrage of Artillery. "Well. It's been an honor lads."

Jaune reached over and grabbed a fallen soldier's rifle. "Yes it has" Before aiming it down at the Grimm who had resumed their charge. The surviving soldiers took aim and readied to go down fighting.

They never had a chance to fire, as the Grimm closed the world began to explode in front of the squad with the sound deep "Brrrt" as a pair of passing aircraft flew over head. Jaune exhaled a sigh of relief as the squad started to howl out in relief as a pair of Atlas strike craft tore into the Grimm horde with their Vulcan cannons.

Over the radio Jaune heard the sound of a familiar Huntsmen call out "Junction 13, this is Huntsmen Ruby Rose were about to land behind you, what's your status?"

The Sergeant called out "It's spotty at best, and we're down to about sixty percent fighting strength, You'd best get down here soon Huntsmen." The Sargent called out "We also found one of your boys here, he looks like he could use some Yellow dust."

The radio went silent "Well tell Mr Arc to stand by I have some spare rocks he can have. See you in 3 minutes"

Jaune leaned back against the sandbags as the Grimm were momentarily driven back and took a deep breath. "Well, that's a hell of a way to start this mess."

Deep down inside, Jaune knew it was only going to get worse.

* * *

 **One chapter till chapter 50, I know this one might come off as being a bit of a filler chapter but there was a reason for it. I have big plans for Chapter 50, and I wanted to get Jaune sorted for the moment so I can focus on them. Hopefully forcing Jaune to cut lose on his abilities allowed M** **erendinoemiliano to get his fix for the moment.**

 **All hell will continue to break lose next chapter. Trust me when I say your going to want to be there to see it.**

 **Fix: Used Issac's early draft name instead of actual name.**


	50. Chapter 50

_Day 1 continues…._

Weiss and Blake skulked their way through District 12. They were both still stuck deep inside of the district and were fighting to make it to a still active junction with little luck. They had stumbled into what was Junction 15 only to find it, and the soldiers manning it, in ruins.

Still they had managed to make the best of it, while neither of them could salvage working Scrolls, they did manage to restock on ammo and Dust cartridges. Both picked up first aid kits after patching up their own minor injuries. However as they slowly and cautiously made their way through the district to react the next Junction on the list. Both of them were bottling up some troubling thoughts in their head.

Weiss couldn't keep it to herself anymore. "Oobleck and Jaune are dead aren't they?"

Blake tensed up at the question "We don't know that…" she replied as she tried to keep her bearing and focus "We'll worry about them later, we need to be careful or we'll end up neck deep in Grimm."

Weiss nodded and she tried to keep an eye out, but her own thoughts were on Jaune and her fears that they left him and Oobleck to die at the hands of the Grimm or worse.

What snapped the pair out of their stupor was a panicked scream from a nearby building. They could see just down the road a moderate sized band of Grimm.

"Civilians…." Blake said looking down the road as the Pack of Grimm looked like they were trying to tear through the walls of the building to get inside and slaughter anyone they could find in there.

"We can help them." Weiss said "We can cut down the Grimm and take them with us to the Junction."

"That's crazy, we can't even be sure the junction is still active." Blake stated.

"Or we can at least find a working scroll to call for a pickup." Weiss said with a smile.

Blake shook her head "Oh Gods damn it all. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we left them to die anyways."

With that Both Huntsmen were off rushing the Grimm in an attempt to catch the pack off guard. Blake did a head count of about 8 Beowolfs with an Alpha.

Weiss did the same and to get their attention she pulled out her gun-blade and fired several shots down the road at them as she charged. Despite her wild spraying fire she had managed to shoot out the knee of one Beowulf who howled out in Agony.

It only got the start of it's howl out though before several more rounds tore through its skull plate killing it as Blake finished the job.. "Weiss can you at least pretend to aim, we don't want the Grimm to howl out for reinforcements!"

The Grimm Turned and charged the pair in mass. Blake and Weiss knew the need to take the Alpha out first. "Blake, Pendulum strike!"

Blake tossed part of her weapon to Weiss who leap in the air creating a circle of speed glyphs around Blake. Blake's role in this plan was to simply swing Weiss in a circle strike around her as she hit each glyph and launched her at the target. It was a simple plan. As Weiss hit each Glyph she couldn't help but think of the time that she and Jaune performed a similar maneuver against that Robot girl several months back.

Once She had past through the last glyph she let go of the ribbon and sent herself flying at the Alpha Beowolf. Weiss twisted herself midair so she was traveling feet and blade point first as she tossed an impact glyph right in front of the Beowolf.

When the Human bullet known as Weiss Schnee finally impacted the Grimm, it was less of her stabbing the Grimm with her sword, and more of her hitting it with a canon ball of meat that had a spike sticking out of the front of it. The Alpha was not so much as stabbed, that of course did happen. Rather the Alpha had it's entire Torso crushed and impaled in a single strike. Weiss of course thanks to the impact glyph actually took the kinetic force she would had felt from the impact and reversed it back on the Grimm as well. .

Needless to say the alpha Grimm was quite dead when it slammed back into a parked car nearby. The remaining six Grimm all turned and looked at Weiss. Which turned out to be a mistake as one of them ended up getting a ribbon around its neck as Blake pulled herself close and drove her only hilt blade into it's back.

Weiss turned and thrust out at another grim catching it in the throat as Blake stabbed a second Grimm and shot a third Grimm downing both.

Weiss used a Dust art stabbing the ground and sending spears shooting straight up into the last two Grimm that had her flanked.

Weiss and Blake stood up straight back to back and quickly cleaned the Grimm blood of their weapons before turning to building. Blake wore a smile on her face as Weiss called out "Did someone call for a couple of Huntsmen?"

Both of them watched as they heard someone unlock and open the door...

* * *

Elsewhere on the outskirts of the district 12 where the Grimm had not yet arrived, Julius Arc and Adam Taurus waited in a nearby alley way. They had planned on seeding the central district, the capital of Vale with While fang infiltrators for when the train had arrived at it's planned destination. The white fang soldiers would have created havoc, bombed key locations, unleashed airborne toxins, and went on suicidal rampages to stall Vale's efforts to rally a coordinated defense of the District.

Instead Torchwick clearly screwed the pooch and allowed the train to crash through a relatively minor district of the city, and weeks to early on top of that.

"Well this is devolving into a real shit show" Julius said to his friend.

"Almost two years of planning, and it goes to hell because some kids on a field trip stumbled on the base of operations." Adam said as she shook his head.

"Something tells me 'stumbled' is not going to be the right word for it." Julius quipped as he noted the smell of smoke in the air. "Still, best to make the most of things."

Adam nodded and gripped his sword hilt. "Of course, the humans are going to die here in mass, and while we might not bring down the kingdom but we will make them fear us."

Julius rubbed his goatee. "What of the infiltration teams, were they able to get into the district?"

"Most of them were able to yes, As we speak they are setting up ambush sites all over the district. Some idiot soldier or huntsmen will get the idea that someone out there is in distress, and when they go in for the rescue." Adam smiled "Well you know the rest."

Julius chuckled "Well that's all good and dandy" he said as the clapped Adam's shoulder. "But I don't think the boys you sent out to that junction are coming back. How about we go get our hands dirty?

Adam straightened up and stretched slightly. "Yeah, clearly if we want this done right we need to do it ourselves."

The reports of a Junction station falling suddenly and without warning or prior signs of Grimm was disturbing to the soldiers of Vale, the fact that no one from the Junction was able to send an SOS just made it worse.

Such is the role that the White Fang would play during the breach.

* * *

Yang had found what she was looking for…. Since the train crash a few hours before, she had been single mindlessly driven to finding and taking out that bastard Roman Torchwick. She didn't say a single word to him, she only charged threw out her leg to try and catch him off guard.

It didn't work out, Torchwick simply ducked under her flying kick and twirled is cane around in his hand as he turned to face where Yang landed. He smirked as he spoke "Were in the middle of a city infested with Grimm and you decide to seek me out for a rematch?"

"You _caused all of this_ you bastard!" Yang screamed out as she charged again throwing out a flurry of punches at Torchwick as she closed in.

Roman was able to swat aside her rage induced strikes with moderate ease, but he could tell that he wouldn't be able to sustain a defense if he allowed her to become too enraged. Once Roman saw and opening he struck first striking her in the stomach with his cane and then twirling it around and striking her in the area of her left eye with the Cane as he said "Oh please little girl, something on this scale is clearly a team effort."

Yang stumbled back holding her eye in clear pain. When she tried to open it, she found that she was bleeding from her eye and her vision was blurry out of it. Yang feigned being in worse pain to draw Torchwick in. Once he was close he reared back to strike her with his cane a second time.

Yang was able to exploit the opening by throwing out a hard strike to his side knocking him off balance before she followed that up with a rapid three punch combo before finishing it off with a Brutal roundhouse kick that sent Torchwick tumbling to the ground.

Yang was not about to let up and closed the distance about to drop and ace kick onto Torchwick. Roman however saw the opening this created and caught her kick before upper cutting her in her inner thigh sending her falling back in clear pain.

As he dragged himself back to his feet he spat a small amount of blood out of his mouth. He had a bad bruise on his face and a pain in his ribs. He sneered at Yang who was starting to drag herself to her feet.

Roman however wouldn't allow it, he closed in and clocked Yang in the Jaw with his Can snapping her head off to the side. He brought the cane down again, catching her in her right arm that she threw up in defense. Yang cried out as the cane struck her arm with a crack.

"Oh I'm sorry, did I just fracture your arm? Man it really is a shame you rely on that to fight!" Roman screamed out as flipped his cane around in his arm and flipped the switch on it to convert it to it's gun state. Roman pressed the barrel of his gun to Yang's head and smiled "That's alright though, you put up a goo-"

He never finished the sentence as Yang's hair began to glow like the sun and her good eye turned red. She casually swatted the can aside with her left arm and threw out a rage fueled straight punch into Torchwick's ribs. Both fighters heard the crack of several ribs fracturing as  
Roman staggered back only to be caught by Yang's "Broken" arm.

Yang stared at Roman with a hateful eye, as her left eye had long since swollen up and was bleeding. Yang spat out in a rage as she leaned back ready to take roman's head off "This is for everyone that died today because of you!"

Yang never finished her strike, instead she screamed out as a sharp pain shot through her leg, she looked down and saw a blade running through it. "Where did…" She whimpered out as she looked back at the Brown and Pink haired woman standing behind her having just stabbed Yang through her leg with a blade that had extended from an umbrella.

Still being grabbed by the neck, Roman flicked his left wrist flicking a knife into his left hand that he quickly drove into Yang' side. "Sorry kid, only good little girls like you fight clean." Roman pulled the knife out and rammed the knife into her side three more times as Yang's eyes with in agony. "I on the other hand allways stack the deck in my favorite like any good gambler"

Neo pulled the blade out of Yang's leg, and once her grip loosened, Torchwick pushed her back into a wall where she slid down, leaving a trail of blood as she slid down. Yang could feel the struggle to breathe as it felt like one lung had collapsed completely.

"Leave her for the Grimm, we need to get out of the district." Roman said to Neo as she put a hand on Roman's shoulder before using her semblance to hide them both and leaving Yang alone in the dirty alleyway.

Yang sat alone for only a few moments before she could see a rear tear open nearby. Out stepped a woman she had not seen since she was barely walking.

"Oh gods… I was too slow." Raven Branwen said as she knelt down to her daughter "Don't move, I'll try to stabilize you so we can get you to a hospital!"

Yang fought to speak through gasps. "It's… Too… Late… Mom…"

Raven set her mask down and looked at her daughter. After assisting her wounds, realizing that Yang couldn't be saved. Raven looked up at her daughter fighting back tears "Gods… I'm so sorry, I wasn't fast enough…"

Yang said, as she started to give into the pain and blood loss, as her eyes turned dimmed, said to her mother "You…. You should have never left us…"

Yang's breathing stopped, and light in her eyes faded away as Yang Xiao Long died in that alleyway, The only witness to her passing was a mother that was only around long enough to bring her into the world and see her leave it.

Raven put her mask back on and lifted her daughter before she slashed open another red portal and carried her daughter's body through it…

* * *

 **[The author has chosen to not include notes for this chapter, see you all next time.]**


	51. Chapter 51

Day 1 Rages on….

Weiss and Blake waited as the door they just knocked on slowly creeps open.

"Hey it's okay, the Grimm are dead, were huntsmen we can escort you out." Weiss said through the barely cracked door.

"Trust us, we know your scared we can get you out of here, how many of there are you in there?" Blake said in a calm tone trying to put the person behind the door at east.

Weiss glanced at Blake "I mean it'll be okay, I know it's just the two of us, but I promise we'll get you to safety if you let us."

Blake turned and glanced at Weiss as the door was thrown open and both barrels of a double barreled shotgun were suddenly in Blake's face.

The deafening sound that followed would be drown out as the sounds of battle raged on around them…

* * *

"Jaune we need to pull back, we don't have the manpower to hold this junction!" Ruby shouted at Jaune as he strapped a makeshift shield he made out of a manhole cover and some sturdy belts to his arm.

"I'm not leaving until my team is accounted for, I know they didn't die out there Ruby." Jaune said as he ran his free hand through his still partially silver hair.

"Jaune listen to me, I care about Yang and the others as well, but we won't do them any good if we get overwhelmed here." Ruby said to Jaune.

"Every Junction that falls lowers the odds of anyone trying to flee to safety from getting out alive." Jaune shouted back. He glanced over at the rest of Ruby's team as the trio tried to reorganize and administer first aid to the surviving Vale soldiers. A couple of soldiers including the sergeant that Jaune fought beside were wounded to the point where the only thing that could be done was to make them comfortable so they died in peace. Since Ruby's team arrived, they had to fight back two more waves of Grimm that pushed in.

"Jaune I get it. You feel responsible for your team God knows it's eating me up that my sister is out there as well, but all we can do now is hope they can make it back on their own." Ruby said as she placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "Besides your injured. Your barely standing, and you don't have the Dust to help fend off another push by the Grimm."

Ruby's looked at him as her eyes teared up from the stress of the situation. "It's time to fall back…."

"Then fall back and take the soldiers with you, I'll stay here and give my team a chance to rally here." Jaune said with a look of resignation.

"You won't save anyone this way!" Ruby shouted.

"What would you do if this was your team out there!" Jaune shouted. "What would you do if you knew you led your own team so badly that there scattered…" Jaune pointed out into the district around them. "Out in this!"

"I'd guess I'd never leave…" Ruby said with a sigh as she put a hand on her forehead.

"Well, looks like I get to break some more legs!" Nora shouted.

"For the record I was on Jaune's side on this one." Ren said with a smile as he loaded the magazines of his guns.

Pyrrha stepped forward to add her own observation "Guy's I'm not sure the soldiers can take much more punishment though. We might want to still send them back."

"Corporal!" Jaune shouted to a man who was bandaging up his own eye. "How are your men, do they need to fall back?"

"Bitch please, Vale Endures." the corporal shouted back as he put another layer of bandage over his eye as a red spot was starting to become visible where his eye would normally be.

"Well I gave them a choice at least." Jaune smirked. "Let's get a plan together while we have a minute or two."

* * *

Glynda walked over to Ozpin's desk paper in hand. Ozpin was fixated on the screen showing the vitals off all students in his school. Most of them were still in green status with only two or three in yellow or orange status.

Glynda commented "The students and staff are holding them back rather well I'd say."

"I wouldn't say were holding anything, two more Junctions fell in the last hour, Junction 16 had to be abandoned before Winchesters Team was even able to arrive at the battle, they are now being redirected to a reserve role for any teams that need a last second rescue. " Ozpin said bitterly. "Last report is that the soldiers at Junction 16 died to the last man."

"It'll be getting dark soon, what's Vale's protocol for that?" Glynda asked.

"Everyone pulls back to the District 9 gates, where they will hold and rally until we can push back in force the next morning." Ozpin said "They hope to take the Breach back by afternoon, then once it's sealed they'll flatten the area with bombing runs."

"I see…" Glynda said with a sigh "I'm guessing that bistro restraint we use to go to after classes when we were younger is gone by now."

Ozpin smiled briefly at the memory "If I'm not mistaken, they went out of business years ago Glynda."

Everyone in the room was snapped to attention as a radio call broken into the makeshift war room. "Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is an all channels SOS! The AAS Northern Lights has sustained critical damage while attempting to ward off Airborne Grimm in the city outskirts and we are going down hard! I repeat mayday, mayday, mayday! this is an all channels SOS! The Northern Lights has sustained critical dam-" The audio was cut off before they were able to say anything else.

"OH gods, didn't Ironwood order his air fleet to surround the city to keep airborne Grimm from getting in?" Glynda said as her face went pale.

"Yes… This just got a whole lot worse…." Ozpin said at watched a monitor that popped up of the great flying warship fall from the sky with it's port side engine pods on fire.

* * *

Ironwood stood on the bridge of his flagship as he watched in horror off in the distance one of the fleets smaller ships fall out of the sky in flames as the distress call cried out over his com net. "My gods…"

Everyone in the room stood in stunned silence, including his second Winter Schnee. Ironwood quickly regained his composure and barked out. "Dispatch all strike wings that are not currently on a mission to plug that hole while we tighten our formation to make up for the loss!"

"General, Wolf squadron is already reporting sightings of larger airborne Grimm over the city and are calling for reinforcements, they are already down to 80% fighting strength and that's dropping quickly!" one of the bridge officers called out.

"Alert all ground forces to have their guns aimed at the skies because it's going to be busy in the District 12 area." Winter shouted back.

"Already done Ma'am!" Shouted a com's officer named Porter.

"Duty officer Hayes, we need you on bridge, order Skull, Tiger, and Vermilion teams to plug the breach for now!" Ironwood shouted.

Everyone quickly got back to work as Ironwood spared a glance at the crippled airship. It looked like one of it's primary engine clusters was taken out, once that went the bird fell from the sky like one would with a crippled wing. Ironwood cursed mentally as he saw the burning hulk fall silently into a lake sending massive waves racing towards the shores.. His thoughts as further casualty reports came streaming in were on the five hundred souls that were aboard that ship when it fell.

The rumble of the crashing airship was felt even all the way to where Jaune and his group waited for the Grim to come. He glanced over Ren and Nora standing side by side. Both looking at serious as he's ever seen the pair. He then spared a glance at Ruby and Pyrrha standing shoulder to shoulder. Ruby's newly repaired "Crescent rose 2.0" in it's twin barred rifle configuration aimed down rage.

As Pyrrha noted Jaune looking she raised her shield in salute prompting Jaune to life his makeshift shield in turn.

Over the radio they heard the call out "All units be advised, Atlas had a ship go down, airborne Grimm are now freely entering the Vale Airspace. All Anti-Air elements are weapons free. I repeat all Anti-air elements are now weapons free!"

As Jaune's thoughts turned to his teammates the Grimm begun to push at them. The Soldiers and his fellow huntsmen start calling out targets and taking them out as the horde of Beowolfs, Ursa's and Boarbatusks, intermixed with a swarm of Creep's charged the line with the intent to kill every last person standing at the junction.

Jaune, not even pretending to hide his Dust Eater nature at this point stood tall with all 250 pounds of Manhole cover strapped to one arm and his sword in the other. As he stood there he pictured the faces of his team. Once the flashed image of Weiss, possibly alone, possibly dead out there in that city flash in his mind. His anger boiled over.

Once the Grimm got close enough to where he was standing, he threw himself at his enemy, practically taking the head off the first Ursa as he closed the gap between them and backhanded him with the Manhole cover before ramming his sword into its neck. The Grimm was dead before it hit the ground.

Jaune sensed someone's dust running from behind and ducked holding up his shield to allow someone to bounce off of it, When he saw it was Nora he gave her a Jolt of electricity to supercharge her next strike.

When Nora landed on one Grim and slammed her hammer down on a second, she was lost in the cloud of black Grimm mist and a spray of black Grimm blood.

"Jaune Swing me!" shouted out the voice of Ruby behind him as she leapt out feet first in front of him holding her scythe out. Jaune caught her ankles and swung her around a full 360 degrees around him as she held her scythe out creating a circle of death as they cut down a dozen Grimm before he tossed her skyward and allowed her enough airtime to snap fire off several shots from her riffle dropping a few more Grimm.

Pyrrha Charged in and rammed a pair of Grimm aside as she charged shield first into them. With her weapon in spear form she casually stabbed one of them in the heart as she walked by it and swatted a side an Ursa's heavy swing with her shield before driving her spear through it's stomach.

Finally Ren fell seemingly from the sky into a circle of about 6 Grimm started to a series. Ren unleashed a brutal combo to the group of Grimm that surrounded him as his arms aimed independently of each other, putting shots through the bodies of the Grimm. With a final spin of his body to slice the throats of the Grimm around him after shooting each of them about five times each. His ended his flurry with both guns to his sides in an idle stance.

The Grimm around him fell dead. Little by little the story repeated itself as the five Huntsmen slowly tried to stop the flood of Grimm coming towards them. They held off the advance for a good fifteen minutes as a team just outside of the line allowing the Vale forces time to call their shots and pick off Grimm that closed on them.

"I couldn't help but notice we stopped pushing forwarding" Ruby shouted out she reloaded her riffle for the fourth time that battle.

"Yeah but were not moving backwards either!" Ren shouted back as he shot a Beowolf four times in the face.

"We have to give people as much of a chance to escape the district as we can!" Jaune said as he pummeled a Grimm to death with his shield.

Pyrrha didn't have much to add to the conversation and simply fired several shots from her weapon in it's rifle configuration at approaching Grimm as the bloody Stalemate raged on for what felt like hours, but was in reality only a few more minutes minutes.

The stalemate would only be broken as they heard the scream of the Vale corporal currently in charge of their Junction shout out at the huntsmen to get their attention "Fall back! Fall back! We have Nevermores headed at us!"

"Did he just say Nevermores? As in more than one?" Nora shouted to Run.

"Dump your last grenades and lets pull back Nora!" Ren shouted back as he made a turn to fall back.

Jaune looked up as he fought his way back towards the sandbag line of the junction. Ruby was laying covering fire but he still had to do more than his share of Grimm slaying during the retreat.

It wasn't until he heard the stretch of the three Nevermores flying overhead that he finally broke his fighting cadence and looked up. What he saw was horrific as three Nevermores flew overhead. One of them was badly injured by the two Anti-air guns that had been covering them up till now spraying large caliber death into its sides. The Second veered off course and simply grabbed the Gun platform as it passed and ripped the entire thing from the roof of the building as it passed. Jaune would later recount the horror of seeing parts of the gunnery crew falling from its talons. The last Nevermore crushed the other gun platform as it passed by throwing what looked like the remains of an Atlassian fighter at it.

Jaune's attention snapped back to the battle at hand when He heard Ruby screaming. He quickly turned and saw her pinned down with a Beowolf biting down on her weapon. Jaune flew into a rage and charged the beast quickly grabbing it by the neck as Dust flooded his arm. With a squeeze of his clawed arm he first heard the snap and it's jaw loosen, Then Jaune tore the beasts head off and threw it into the crowd with a feral roar.

As Ruby got back to her feat and started to fire into the crowd in a retreat she looked at Jaune asking "What the heck was that?"

Jaune was covering her from any melee attackers that tried to rush in, but few Grimm seemed inclined to do so at the moment. He replied with a quick "What was what?"

"Were you always able to decapitate Grimm with your bare hands?" Ruby said feeling slightly queasy as she thought about it with.

As the five man team finally made it back to the Line of Sand bags and as Jaune was about to answer Ruby's question. The group was interrupted by the screech of a passing nevermore.

"It's going to make a strafing pass, find cover!" One of the soldiers shouted out before a massive feather lanced her through the chest. The whole team scattered as a massive volley of razor tipped feathers fell from the sky nearly impaling or actually impaling soldiers as it passed before it was finally driven off again by a pair of fighters racing overhead.

When it was all said and down, the Junction was trashed badly, it's Anti-air defenses were gone, the last ranking enlisted man, the Corporal from before was dead. And was left of the Vale fighting force was broken and directions less.

Ren walked over to Jaune and put a hand on his shoulder. "Jaune, We can't hold the Junction anymore."

Jaune looked down at his feet as Ruby walked over. He addressed her "Ruby it's time to pull out, lead the Soldiers Back to Junction 18."

Ruby looked at her friend with a puzzled look on her face. "Why am I leading them back?"

Jaune shook his head and spoke with a defeated almost broken tone "Technically this was your Junction, I was just squatting it. I'm going to hold out unti-" Jaune was interrupted by his scroll ringing. He had long since transferred his Scroll's ID chip to one of the fallen soldier's scrolls. He quickly answered "This is Arc!"

"Jaune thank gods!" He heard the voice of Weiss call out.

"Gods Weiss, where the hell have you been, is there anyone else with you?" Jaune practically cried out in relief and had to sit down for a moment.

* * *

Not far away as Blake was cleaning up her weapon and a grazed shoulder. Weiss said back "I'm with Blake, we got attacked by White fang in what looks like a boarded up toy store." Weiss glared angrily at Blake "She didn't tell me that she set up one of her shadow duplicates till I watched its face blown off by a shotgun."

Over her confiscated Scroll, the White Fang sticker still on the back of it. Jaune spoke to her. "Yang is not with you then?"

Weiss's eyes narrowed "No… I'm sorry we had hoped she somehow ended up with you Jaune."

Jaune was silent over the phone. "What's your location, I'd pinged you the location of my scroll."

Weiss looked at the screen "Uh, Your at Junction 15? Were about maybe 4 blocks west of you, we passed what was left of Junction 22 before we got to where we are."

"Can you get to us? We have maybe 20 minutes before the Grimm makes another push against us. We won't hold them off again." Jaune said in a tone that Weiss noted sounded equally troubled and worn out.

"We'll be there. See you soon." Weiss said as she ended the call and turned to Blake "So uh… what can we do about her?" As she pointed at a young woman huddled in the corner next to Blake.

Blake and Weiss regarded the young woman that was barely responsive in the corner. "We can't leave her, but.. Gods Weiss look at her face." Blake stood up and took a few steps away shaking slightly.

Weiss lifted her head up and looked at her. Weiss barely contained the urge to throw up when she saw what they did. "T-they Sewed her mouth and eyes shut?"

"And tortured her to the point of near insanity… She might not even be a local of the area." Blake said with a shaky voice

"Why? Why would they do something this fucked up?" Weiss asked Blake.

"This is not the White Fang I left so I don't know. But my best guess is they wanted her in a state of constant pain and negative emotions so she could act as a Lure for the Grimm." Blake said with a look of disgust on her face.

Weiss leaned over to the girl and said softly, "I'm a Huntsmen from Beacon, can you understand me? My name is Weiss Schnee."

The girl just nodded her head as shook like a leaf in place. Weiss kept talking. "Were not safe still, but we'll get you somewhere safe, I promise you that. Lets me help you out of here."

The girl just nodded as Blake and Weiss helped her. The girl whimpered the entire time. "She's in rough shape, it'll slow us down."

Weiss nodded and said "Were huntsmen, we don't do this because it's easy. Jaune's waiting, lets go!"

The pair left the building with the girl in tow…

* * *

 **So I didn't leave any author notes for the last chapter on purpose, so I didn't have a chance to say this before but, Holy crap were at 50 chapters! That is just Crazy to me that we made it this far!**

 **Also, Uh, Yeah reviews as a whole was how I expected reactions to Yang's death to be. I mean I had her death plotted out for about... God I started plotting towards the breach for about 20 chapters or so now?**

 **The point is, that the Breach was me issuing divorce papers to canon. AQMW has taught me that I enjoy writing more when I'm not shacked to the official timeline. That said I'm still going to hit the same General story arcs of the show, but their going to now be very different than how they played out in canon. Considering that V4 and V5 were not fantastic at all, I hope no one minds this.**

 **Either way, Thank you as always for sticking with me through 50 chapters, and i'll see you for the next 50.**


	52. Chapter 52

_In the skies above Vale. Day 1 continues_

"Skull Leader to all units, were rearmed and read to kills some Grimm, lets get us some!" One Captain Kramer of the Atlas Airforce shouted into his radio to his squad.

Kramer and his Skull Team, the ace squadron of the battle group soared in their Mark 3 Fighters. The Mark 3 was an underappreciated design, most pilots still prefer the older but more agile Mark 2. But Kramer and by extension his Skull Team enjoyed the Mark 3 for it's solid design and the inclusion of a second seat for someone to man the top mounted gun turret just behind the pilot.

Before he could follow that train of thought much further a familiar voice chimed in over the line "All pilots this is Flight Officer Hayes. The General has orders for all flights to clear the airspace over Vale's district 12, we are observing an uncountable number of airborne Grimm concentrating on the area of District 12."

The voice of one of his pilots chimed in over the squad's communications line. "Uncountable huh? Someone tell me again why were killing ourselves out here for Vale?"

"Because the general ordered us to fight Dixon" Kramer barked at the pilot in question. "Anyone else have anything else to add?"

Pilot Dixon spoke up. "Only that we all better make it back alive, I got a date with Flight Officer Porter after this blows over." He said with a laugh before he was cut off with a scream as everyone notices his plane start to go down.

"We have a metric shit ton of Lancers coming at us from our nine!" Another pilot shouted out.

"Skull Team, Guns hot, break formation and call your targets, Gunners keep our asses clean!" Kramer ordered as he broke formation to get out of the direct line of fire of the Lancers.

When the battle was joined, The Skull team was fighting 4 to 1 odds in the Grimm's favor. Kramer didn't see this as being a particular problem as they fought worse odds before. As his wing-men called their targets he called his and unloaded on it with his fighters four .30 caliber machine guns shredding the Lancer in a second.

"Splash one, seeking a second!" Kramer shouted out as he heard the thumping the twin barred .50 call turret on his fighter firing away at something. "Two on our six sir!" his gunner shouted out.

"Skull leader breaking right!" He said as he hard banked his fighter Hard to the right to evade a a spike going through his plane by a narrow enough margin that he heard it scrape off his fuselage.

"Roy please tell me you got a bead on it!" Kramer shouted to his gunner as he attempted evasive maneuvers.

"Negative keep going!" His gunner shouted back.

Kramer looked out one of the mirrors on his plane that gave him a rear view of behind his plane as someone shouted out "This is Skull 4, Targeting Lancers tailing Skull leader, guns guns guns!" It was a relief to see the pair of lancers get shredded as Skull 4 panned his guns across the pair of Grimm.

"Clean shooting Skull 4, Targeting lancer on my 9, Guns guns guns!" Kramer shouted as he took down another Lancer.

"This is Skull 5, just took a stinger through my gunner's compartment, Lost flight controls, and my gunner is dead! I'm going to bail once I'm below below the sortie!" shouted one pilot as Kramer saw the dying plane dropping low below the fire fight before he bailed out over one of the other districts.

"Confirmed parachute, I guess we'll pick him up later" Another pilot shouted. "Lets hope they ladies treat him nice down there." The pilot said with a chuckle.

"Skull Lead's gunner is tagging the Grimm that took out Skull 5!" Roy shouted out as he sprayed down the lancer. Kramer felt the telltale thump through the planes metal and the slight jerking of his flight stick as the plane vibrated with his Gunner's shots.

One pilot called out "This is skull 6 that was the last of them!"

Kramer lets out a sigh of relief as his grip on the flight stick eased up. "Skull team, continue on assignment"

Kramer's attention was grabbed when FO Hayes called in. "Skull team you have new orders, Vale is advising that their artillery teams are tied up and they need a plane to perform a strike on the grid coordinates for what they are calling Junction 13, soldiers and Huntsmen have been routed from the area."

"Will do Ma'am… Please let Flight officer Porter know that we lost Sergeant Dixon to the Grimm." Kramer said with a somber tone.

"She is aware already captain." the flight officer stated in a professional tone. "Signing off…"

Kramer sighed before he addressed his team "Okay we got a job to do, I know today has already been long, but we still got a battle to win!"

The shouts of his team put a smile on his face as they pushed their planes to make the best time to the next engagement…

* * *

On the Bridge of Ironwood's Flagship, James Ironwood sat in his seat watching the tactical map. His eyes occasionally glanced over to the Flight Officer Porter who was trying to coordinate Fox team barely holding back sobs over the boyfriend she just lost.

Ironwood was not a heartless man and his heart went out to her. "Porter, Go take a break." He calmly shouted out "Flight Officer Grant please take over her post!"

Wordlessly they swapped spots as FO Grant handed Porter a cup of coffee and watched as the young red haired flight officer left the bridge. "How's the operation to retrieve survivors from the _Northern lights_ Going?"

Winter chimed in "I'm sorry sir, Vermilion team advised that by the time the retrieval teams got near the ship it was already swarming with Grimm. They picked up no survivors on board."

"That ship had five hundred souls on it…" Ironwood mused.

"They went down fighting sir, i'm sure of it." Winter said trying to reassure her superior officer.

Winter was handed a note that she read and let out a relieved sigh before saying "Thanks Gods"

"Report?" Ironwood asked.

"Headmaster Ozpin advised that 3 of the four members of the student team led by one Jaune Arc that went missing has been accounted for, all are alive… including my sister." Winter said. "Only a Huntsmen named Yang Xiao Long is still missing.

Ironwood took a sip of his long cold coffee before he spoke "Hold to that bit of good news, I don't imagine were going to get much more of it before dawn hits. Sun goes down in an hour, and if I'm not mistaken Vale should order everyone out of the distract."

* * *

 _Meanwhile on the streets of district 12…._

"Keep running god dammit!" Jaune shouted to no one in as the seven assembled huntsmen and battle worn soldiers made a fighting withdraw from district 12.

Blake stopped to fire several bursts at Grimm as they came from around corners or from side alleys. "After all the Grimm that was killed today I don't feel like we're even putting a dent in them!"

Ren was making a series of short hopes spraying at Grimm behind him as he also commented. "It feels like we've killed hundreds of them by ourselves but still was not enough to push them back to the breach."

Weiss walked the blind survivor she and Blake retrieved as they fired behind her blindly. "Vale might have been able to take the Breach today if they went all out, but then they would be butchering their own people in the process. The Junctions got a lot of the district's civilian population out. Come the morning, you can bet their going to hammer the hell out of this place.

Weiss turned and gasped as a Beowolf leapt out from an alley faster than she could react, it was only the timely use of a thrown manhole cover that crushed the Grimm's skull from Jaune that saved her.

Jaune limped over to her and helped the Survivor onto his back. "We need to pick up the pace! That swarm is not slowing down!"

Weiss could see the look in his eyes, he was fighting on nothing at this point, and without even a second thought he picked up the injured blind girl and started to carry her. "Jaune, don't overdo it, your still not at full strength with that hurt leg of yours."

Jaune took a second and shot her a faint smile. "I'll relax once were all on the other end of the district wall." He said as he carried the girl piggyback on his back.

Soon they hear all paused as they hear the sound of fighter craft flying over head, the first few planes raced over them without pause, a few of the rear planes made strafing runs on the Grimm mob behind them. Even Ren found himself crying out in relief as the passing fights shredded Dozens of Grimm and sent the rest of the swarm into retreat.

They all knew better than to Linger as they pressed on. "That might have bought us a few more minutes but were traveling slow with all of our wounded." Nora noted.

Ruby who had been bouncing around running interference returned panting heavily and looking upset.

"Ruby! What happened?" Jaune shouted.

"The Grimm, the took the Junction up ahead, were cut off!" Ruby said. "I couldn't find a work around."

"Blake, go find us a path back!" Jaune barked out a command. "Ruby can we borrow Ren so she's not going alone?"

"Ren, watch her back!" Ruby shouted, "The rest of us will press on towards the Next Junction, if Ren and Blake can't get us around the horse we'll punch through!"

A wounded soldier chimed in "Respectfully ma'am, we might not be able to Brute force it, but we might be able to hold out for reinforcements if we get close and we fire our SOS flare."

"It's the last Junction between us and Gate nine" Jaune said. "We just need to get through it, but I agree we call for aid if we need it." Jaune signaled for Weiss to get up so they could get to jogging again.

"Yeah give me a second... " Weiss painted out as she held her stomach wearing a pained look on her face.

"You okay?" Jaune walked over to her.

"Just feeling a bit sick to my stomach is all." Weiss said. "I think the day is just getting to me."

Ruby helped Weiss up as she glanced at Jaune with a look of concern. Jaune meanwhile still had the injured civilian on her back who was barely alert and was only whispering "Just leave me" Repeatedly.

"We can all rest once we make it to District nine." Jaune said.

With some hesitation the team advanced onward as the sun hung low in the sky.

* * *

Almost twenty minutes later, Jaune and company found themselves huddled in a small alleyway, they had a scant thirty minutes before nighttime fell over Vale and Gate Nine would be closed till the morning.

Blake and Ren came back shaking their heads, Ren whispered to the assembled group "We couldn't find a gap. It's almost wall to wall Grimm out there now.

"Have we looked into busting through the walls of a residential block to get around them" Jaune asked.

"We don't have the time for that" Nora said. "The only way we have now is our SOS flair and to hope that Vale Military are still willing to send someone out this late to get us."

"Not likely ma'am" A young private said. "We all knew as soldiers that if we got caught out here after nightfall, that we were on our own."

"Fire the flare. I know it'll draw Grimm down on us, but at least we can funnel them through this narrow alleyway to make it so they can't come at us all at once." Ruby whispered out.

"If we do this, than Pyrrha and I will front line. We'll only have one way in or out alley ourselves as well. So either we die fighting or we win." Jaune said confidently.

"Ah shit, well I didn't want to live forever anyways" the solider said as he pulled his SOS flare gun out. "Just say the word!"

"Now!" Jaune shouted as everyone got into good firing positions behind the Dust Eater and the Spartan.

* * *

Meanwhile back on Ironwood's flagship, Winter called out "SOS flare sighted only a few blocks away from Gate nine!"

"The ground pounders are Vale's problem… That said, are we ready to deploy forces into Vale?" Ironwood said in reply. His face worn looking from being on the bridge the entire day.

"Yes sir, we have three companies of knights un-boxed and ready for deployment into the city." Winter said to the general.

"Deploy them at once, I doubt they'll survive the night but it'll keep the grim busy and away from the gates." Ironwood said.

Winter quickly typed up the message and sent it off to deployment bays of the ship. Ironwood planned on making a pass over the city to deploy his knights into the battlefield hours ago, but the airborne Grimm only just thinned out enough that break away to drop the robot soldiers into the fight. "Do we know if Vale is planning on deploying any assets into the field overnight?"

"Yes sir, they advised they intend to field 15 Alpha's into the battlefield to keep the Grimm off the gates." Winter said.

Ironwood scoffed "What in the hell do they expect 15 of anything to do against a horde like that."

"The officer said, and this is a direct quote 'slaughter the entire fucking horde if asked too'. I think their blowing smoke and are just letting us blow resources on them to be frank." Winter said with a hint of disdain for the Vale military.

Ironwood thought to himself. "That said, I don't know what an alpha actually is. Do we know anything about them?"

"No sir." Winter said. "I think we're going to get an introduction to them tonight."

Jaune gripped the Beowolf by it's throat and squeezed it till it popped and he was able to toss it back away from the line.

He mused as reached down in the brief window he had and picked up his sword with his good arm, the other one had taken a bad bite just moments before.

When the SOS flare fired off the Grimm swarmed like a pack of ants at them and it was taking everything they could muster to just hold them off. Jaune wanted to hope for a miracle, but they were all tired, low on ammo, Jaune had almost no Dust left in him.

" _This is where we die."_ Jaune thought with a quiet acceptance in his heart as he hacked away at Grimm who rushed them.

Pyrrha to her credit was doing an amazing job holding her half of their so called front line as she shield bashed and thrusted her way through an incredible amount of Grimm in the short time they held the line. But even she was tired and barely holding her shield up.

Jaune felt the Weight of the Beowolf that knocked him off his feet as it crashed into him. He heard his sword bounced away with a series of metalic clangs and he found himself forced to try and keep the Jaws of the grim open as they were mere centimeters from snapping down on his neck.

Then a sound that would be music to their ears rang out. "Huntsmen, Stand by, Help has arrived." cried out a deep almost robotic sounding voice.

With solid earth shaking impact a figure in an incredibly thick suit of armor landed next Jaune and his Beowolf and slammed it off of him with it's massive hammer. Splattering it's head back and actually sending a shock wave out that forced other grim the stumble. The figure then slammed a massive shield in front of themselves to shield the injured huntsmen. The shield looked to be a good 4 inches of steel from head to toe in front of warrior. the Armor warrior charged in to the swarm assisted by jet boosters on it's back that plowed through the Grim like they were a pile of stuffed animals.

As Jaune was able to take a look at the figure, he could tell that the man was wearing a complex and bulky powered armor, with hydraulics built into it as well as a bulky jet pack. The armor was Black, save for a single dark blue shoulder flying the blue colors of the Vale Army. It spoke out in the same robotic tone as ot gave a status report to some unseen party. "This is Hammer. The survivors are secured."

A voice over the military line spoke up "This is unit two, the rest of the team has just finished clearing the path for the survivors. We are rallying on you Hammer.

The Huntsmen were in awe at the warrior they saw before them as he went back to beating back the Grimm. Jaune saw the occasional flicker of Aura as a Grimm would get a lucky swipe in.

The soldiers shouted out in relief as the watched four more similarly armored men walk forwarding. Two of them were armed with rotary mini-guns of the .30 caliber variety. While two others had these massive piston driven spears that they used to effectively explode Grimm that were hit by it. All of them had the same massive shields the hammer wielder had.

As the other four lined up the one with the Hammer addressed the huntsmen. "The Special Weapons and Armor Division Team Alpha hereby relives you huntsmen, you had better get back to the Gate."

"Hell of a set up you have there." Jaune said cradling his injured arm "You sure you can hold this all night?"

"If we don't get bored and decided to retake the entire district overnight" the man that called himself Hammer said. "Get moving, you don't have enough time to hold out"

As the soldiers walked by they all gave the armored warriors salutes. Jaune did the same as he also left with his team.

They would make it back, the so called "Night crew" of the Vale alpha troopers and the Atlas built knight robots would do their job and hold the line over the long and dark night inside of district 12.

As bad as the day was for the huntsmen, tomorrow would be harder for them.

* * *

 **Here we are with the next chapter of Dust Eater. This chapter I kinda wanted to pull the camera back and show small snippets of the rest of the fight as a whole, just to make sure it's clear that's it's not just Jaune and Ruby's teams out there. I'm sure at least one reader out there is Groaning right now that I'm basically porting over Robotech character names for Atlas air forces pilots and bridge staff. Also those of you in the know probably picked up that the Alpha soldiers of Vale are just renamed Fencers from the EDF series.**

 **Either way this was a fun chapter to write. I didn't have much to comment on as far as reviews except for Buildingcross who correctly picked up that I took inspiration from the movie True Lies for the interrogation scene back in chapter 45. Other than that, I hope you all have a great day and I'll see you all next time.**


	53. Chapter 53

In the waning hours of the day, Jaune Arc laid in a hospital bed as his aura did it's job and worked on healing his injuries.

"Well I'm going to end up with scars from today…" Jaune mused as he looked his still healing left arm. From his bed he saw other injured allies lying nearby, mostly soldiers or a few huntsman he didn't recognize. To his left he saw Cardin laying on his side. Not actually injured but he was brought in with most of his team unresponsive and in a borderline catatonic state. The doctors said that his brain just clicked off from something that had happened to them out there.

Russel Thrush was not with them, and none of them wanted to elaborate on what happened to him except to say "he didn't make it." a couple cots over Sky Lark was unconscious with severe gashes to his chest, it was still up in the air if he would survive. Also sitting against the wall next to Sky was Dove Bronzewing who was napping in the having not received any serious wounds.

Jaune politely waved when Velvet waved as she came in, Velvet walked over to Jaune and asked him "How's Cardin?"

"I wish I knew, he's checked out to say the least." Jaune said as both he and Velvet watched Cardin stare off into space.

"How are you holding up?" Velvet asked as she glanced down as his leg.

Jaune regarded his own leg for a moment, he had to be rushed into an emergency surgery to save it, it turned out it became severely infected from shards of metal that were still stuck in it and needed to be cut out. "I think I'll be strong enough to fight by morning, well with some painkillers at least."

"So some of the soldiers out there are saying that you kept secrets from us." Velvet asked as she sat down next to Cardin and stroked his back.

"Well, My team knew what I am, So did Ruby's team…" Jaune said out loud.

Velvet nodded in acknowledgment. Before she heard a murmur from Carding "Vel?"

"I'm here sweetie…" Velvet said as she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "You okay there."

Cardin stiffly sat up and looked at his teammates… "Oh… Oh Gods We Left Thrush!" He shouted as he gripped his head.

"Hey! Dove said there was nothing that could be done for him." Velvet said placing her hands on his cheeks. "There was nothing, remember?"

"That thing that got him… that thing was impossible, the humanoid Grimm, The one with the claw…" Cardin rambled out.

"A humanoid Grimm with a claw. Wait like a crab claw?" Jaune asked as he felt sweat form on his neck.

Cardin nodded "Damn thing, nothing we had could even hurt it."

"Yeah, I remember something like that from Grimm studies, a Grimmcaller. A Type of Grimm that can organize and command other Grimm." Jaune said. "We need to let the generals know if they have one here!"

"I'll go let them know in a minute…" Velvet said to Jaune before turning to Cardin "Sweetie what happened out there?"

Cardin shook like a leaf as he spoke. "When we first go into Vale, we learned that the Junction we were to help hold was wiped out before we even got here, so they put us in reserve back at the main staging area near the gate to district nine."

He leaned forward. "There was this other team. Uh I think they were called. NDGO or something from…" Cardin thought it over for a second. "I think they were from Shade academy or something...:"

Jaune spoke up "Yeah I think I know who your talking about."

"Yeah well, this team gets word from some of the soldiers that they were getting radio communications from inside the district. like an entire apartment building was sheltering in the basement of the building and they didn't have enough supplies to keep everyone alive right?" Cardin said as he tried to calm his own nerves.

"Yeah? So what happened then?" Jaune asked

"Well, the NDGO girls decide to go be big damn heroes and bring those civilians back right? Only the army wouldn't let them go alone because of the danger." Cardin said clenching his fists in a growing anger. "We stepped up to help. I'm not going to lie, we wanted to show off. Or at least just get out there and do something other than stand around."

Velvet rubbed Cardin's back as he kept talking "We were a bunch of idiots. Oh sure the fight over to the building that was fine enough, we got lucky and hit the thin patch of the Swarm."

"Yeah I think that's when the Grimm were laser focused on the Junctions." Velvet added.

"Yeah… Well we get to the apartment building, we need to send one team in to go collect the survivors while the other team waits outside to keep the Grimm off of us. NDGO decided to go inside and get the survivors out ..."

Cardin pauses as the tears form in his eyes and he sobs out "There were no survivors… We didn't know that the White Fang were setting traps in the district…."

"Oh gods… Weiss and Blake almost got taken by one of those traps…" Jaune said

"The whole building goes up in a fireball, the girls were down in the basement... " Cardin said. "We get the notifications that all four of them flat-lined at the same time." Cardin wrapped his arms around himself. "I guess after that I checked out, woke up here with most of my team dead or injured."

"Good lord... " Velvet said before she hugged Cardin.

"I'm sorry man…" Jaune said before he saw a nurse come in.

"Mr Arc? A Miss rose wanted to speak with you in private…" The Nurse said to Jaune.

Jaune waved to Cardin and Velvet as he grabbed a crutch and started to hobble to where Ruby wanted to meet him at..

* * *

Ozpin sat in his office. He had been awake for almost 24 hours by this point. The big screen of Huntsmen vitals were a mess, half of the huntsmen were floating with yellow levels of Aura. and he saw five names that were red to represent the death of the huntsmen.

"Nebula Violette, Dew Gayl, Gwen Darcy, Octavia Ember…" Ozpin paused as he read the last name "and Bartholomew Oobleck…"

Ozpin turned to the woman who he had not seen in a number of years, the Raven black haired woman, with the blood red eyes and blood red clothes. Ozpin felt a surge of anger as he spoke up "Now your telling me that Yang Xiao Long died hours ago and your only telling us about this now?"

Raven's demeanor was one of a mother whose heart was broken. Spoke with a voice filled with sorrow and rage "Yes… I know it was not at the hands of the Grimm either. But I didn't see her killer."

"Could anything be done?" Glynda asked.

"Her.." Raven paused. "She had a collapsed lung from several stab wounds. She had severe internal bleeding and a stab wound in her leg that cut her femoral artery." Raven sighed and folded her arms around herself "Even if I had the time to get her to a field surgeon, she would have bled to death on the table."

Glynda asked Raven "Where is she now?"

Raven said. "I brought her home to her father… It was his right to be able to bury her." Raven shook her head "At least she'll be with those who were there for her in life…"

Ozpin simply asked "Then why did you choose to come here in person? You could have notified us by scroll message."

"I could have, but I want something from you Ozpin…" Raven said as her resolve quickly returned.

"From me?" Ozpin asked "I'm not exactly in the position to give you much at the moment."

"Oh that's fine, But I want to be clear. When the time comes, if we find my daughters killer." Raven grimaced "I want his head!"

"I see, I should be able to arrange that, but you'll have to get in line, I imagine with her sister, father, team leader and her partner." Ozpin said.

"That's fine. I don't care who kills the bastard, just as long as they die." Raven said "And in return for your hopeful help in making sure I get the last blow. I'll bring something to your table."

"And what would that be?" Ozpin asked.

Ravens eyes glowed blue and a chill filled the room. "The powers of the Spring Maiden."

* * *

Once Jaune had made it to where Ruby had asked them to meet up, he saw Ruby and Weiss sitting together on a bench, Ruby was looking down at the floor openly sobbing cradling something in her lap.

Jaune walked up as Weiss looked up with tears in her eyes as well. Jaune spoke first, mostly to announce his presence. "Ruby… What happened?"

Ruby looked up and revealed that she was cradling Yang's weapons… "Jaune… they found her…"

Jaune felt the weight give out from under him as he fell to his knees. "Wait... What do you mean they found her." He said in disbelief as he felt his heart sink in his chest.

Weiss sobbed out "She's gone Jaune…"

Jaune stumbled onto his backside and screamed out in rage for a full minute as Weiss went over and put her arms around him. Once his rage was calmed Weiss helped him to a seat with Ruby and the Trio said in a circle silent for a few minutes.

Jaune broke the silence "We find who did this and kill them…." He said bluntly.

"It would have to have been Roman Torchwick, he was the only person at Mountain Glenn who would be able to stand up to her." Weiss said.

"What happened at Mountain Glenn?" Ruby asked as she looked at the pair, the shine in her eyes diminished.

Weiss and Jaune exchanged glances As Blake walked up to the group with her eyes started to tear up, all she could say was "I just heard about Yang…" before she sat down.

"Jaune... " Ruby asked "What happened at Mountain Glenn?"

Jaune explained the best he could, leaving out the details that only he and Weiss were allowed to know. About how they stumbled onto the white fang base, him getting separated from the others. How Oobleck died to destroy the train car with the chemical weapons.

He didn't mention anything about the Maidens, or how he was there for the sole purpose of investigating the rumor of that base in the first place.

"I… I'll make them pay then…" Ruby said as she gripped her sisters gauntlets in her arms tightly and sobbed.

"Hey. Ruby, You know there's a thing Dust Eaters do. We carry the weapons of those we lose, so we can use them to avenge their owners" Jaune said as he laid out Issac's whip on the bench between them. "I know I'm the one who killed Issac… but he wouldn't have ever got mixed up in this shit in the first place if my father didn't encourage him to join his group."

"I was wondering why you kept his weapon…" Ruby had asked.

Jaune carefully took one of the gauntlets of Ember Celica and carefully readjusted the straps on it to fit on Ruby's arm. "I think she would have wanted you to do the same, to know that in some way she's still protecting you Ruby."

"I'm not really suited fo-" Ruby said with a look of surprise on her face.

"I'm not much for fighting with a whip either." Jaune said with forced but still warm smile on his face. "We live for those we lost. We fight for those who are still alive."

Jaune's look turned to surprise when Ruby placed the other gauntlet in his hands. "Then you take one. We both can fight to avenge her." Ruby paused as she looked at the gauntlet on her arm. "My sister would want to you to protect your team in her name."

"Great job I'm doing of it so far, I couldn't even keep my team together to keep them all safe." Jaune said. "I know I'm not a leader. I got a head for tactics, but I don't have the ability to actually lead. That got her killed."

Blake put a hand on his shoulder and spoke "You kept us all alive today…"

Weiss nodded "You and Ruby both led the teams almost perfectly. I heard we lost quite a few other Huntsmen today."

"Yeah… Cardin's team is a mess right now, He lost one of his boys and… well I didn't want to say it, but even if Sky recovers he won't be taking up a weapon again.." Jaune said.

"We also lost that entire team from Shade right?" Blake added.

"Yeah, Cardin told the story behind it already." Jaune added.

Ruby look contemplative for a moment as she wiped her eyes, when she looked at the others there was a fire in her eyes none of them had ever seen before. One that was off putting for Jaune in particular as he had seen that look in his father's own eyes when he last spoke to him.. "We live for those we lost. We fight for those who are still alive right?" Ruby said as her hands clenched into fists . "We will Avenge them all. We fight to punish them for what they have taken from us." Ruby looked at the others in the group.

"Yeah, that sounds fair ruby." Jaune said feeling his blood chill in his body.

Ruby stood up and went to collect her gear. "I got to let my team know what's up" As she left.

Jaune looked off to the side as he unhooked on of his gauntlets and fitted Yang's to his arm. He hoped Ruby would be okay, but he couldn't shake his feelings of worry. He addressed the surviving members of his team. "We end this tomorrow, one way or another. Get some rest."

Blake wandered off to find somewhere to sleep As Weiss took Jaune's hand and "I know a spot, come with me."

Jaune nodded as he stood and walked off with her.

* * *

 **So it's been a couple weeks since I worked on this, I ended up honestly in an "AQMW mood" and ended up advancing the story of my other fic more than this one. But I do want to right the ship on this one and get it going again especially in the light of a few of the reviews I read in the last chapter. So after retooling the arc a bit I'm going to get it back on course to try and bring it to a close in the next handful of chapters. But hey it's a big event that causes a lot of changes in canon, so I won't rush it.**

 **Either way this chapter stands on it's own well enough so I don't have much else to say, thanks again for reading, and I hope you all have a great day!**


	54. Chapter 54

Military leaders of the Vale Army and Air core, as well as James Ironwood and his command staff gathered around a large computer table displaying a map of the 12th district set up in Ozpin's office in the late hours of the day. The area map displayed the entire district broken into blocks controlled by the Combined forces of Vale and Atlas in blue, and Area's lost to the Grimm in red.

"As you can see here, after last nights pull out, roughly eighty five percent of the district is held by the Grimm, our current plan for retaking the district is to engage in a campaign of carpet bombing to burn out as much of the Grimm as we can before we send our forces in." One Vale General said as he highlighted areas on the map where the bombing would be most effective.

"How could it have possibly become this bad so quickly?" Ironwood asked. "The White Fang as far as our intelligence knows didn't have this level of resources up till now."

Ozpin looked down at the map of District 12. "It's simple, The White Fang had managed to recruit a number of Dust Eaters from the settlement that Atlas razed months ago. As we are all aware a single Dust Eater can greatly increase the strength of any combat force."

Ozpin paused and took a drink "We know they have between eight and twelve Dust Eaters working with them."

"Dammit Ozpin, I'm painfully aware of how much the Dust Eaters have been a thorn in our sides since they became radicalized after, and I want to stress the point, the SDC _Illegally_ hired mercs to bomb that place." Ironwood countered.

"The King by the way, still has a very serious gripe with Atlas for that as well. Offering a gratuitous sum of Lien for a depleted dust mine so you can commit genocide on a dying race, the SDC better damn well believe it'll come up when the time comes to renegotiate contracts next year." The Vale General said.

"Honestly if the survivors of Jaune Arc's team were any indication, we dodged a bullet, our best guess is that they were at 95% readiness for this operation, not to mention the fact that they were originally targeting the central district with both a Grimm breach _and chemical weapons!_ " One Alteseain officer said. "That would have crippled Vale in a single blow…"

"This is getting us nowhere, General Brown, what is the status of your efforts to redeploy forces to district 12 for the push." Ozpin said.

"On schedule, but keep in mind our largest cannons were designed to be aimed outward, not inside the city." the Vale General added.

"Then please hurry it up, as you can see..." Ozpin said as he gestured to the large monitor showing the current death toll that was still ticking up. "We have already lost thousands of lives, Civilian, military, and Huntsmen combined."

"My fighter wings have already been tasked with clearing the airspace for the bomber wings, I'm still projecting 80% of those bombers are going one way though so we packed them with extra timed explosives so the plane itself can self destruct if they are shot down over the district."

"Heavy artillery bombardment will also take place around the same time." The Vale General added.

"By the way, before we break, when were you planning on disclosing the fact that you have force of Aura-active soldiers in your ranks." Ironwood asked General Brown. "I'm also surprised that you don't encourage your Aura users to become huntsmen."

"General Ironwood, were not fools we know every nation employs Aura-active soldiers in their ranks. As for why some might choose the military life instead of the freedom of being a huntsmen?" The General smirked "Why that's just simple national pride. It's just that we don't give them fancy titles like 'Specialist' to make them feel better."

"I suppose there is a certain appeal to wanting to defend one's home instead of taking the fight to the Grimm directly." Ozpin stated. "Dismissed, we need to concentrate on our efforts to retake the Breach."

* * *

All over Vale, Soldiers readied for battle deploying to staging area throughout the bordering districts to district twelve as the Vale war machine kicked into high gear in the hundreds ready to be fielded into the battle. The Vale Army emptied out there arsenals to provide every last gun, bomb, shell, and bullet to it's forces to turn on the Grimm that was all by licking at the walls of the district by this point.

Forty-two Vulcan armed mobile gun platforms, almost literal guns with legs were readied for action. While nowhere near the level of sophistication as a Paladin, the Vale army could field them quickly and with a far lower expense to the military than the Atlas equivalent.

On the outer walls of Vale city, it's heavy artillery cannons slowly turned to face designated target points inside the district, a horrifying and unthinkable prospect less than forty eight hours ago. But now seen as a simple checkbox on a long list of things they needed to do to survive.

In the skies above Vale, the circle of Atlas air ships were preparing their own canons, it's defensive line was now practically above the city itself and vale citizens could look up and see the massive flying fortresses circling the walls of the city from almost any point one could walk. In another time, your typical Vale citizen would be distressed to see the large guns of the airships aiming into the city, but today it showcased a desperate hope of victory over a Grimm Threat the world has not seen in decades.

Also in the skies were dozens of fighter craft escorted large bombers. The bombers themselves had machine gun turrets on tactical mounts on there surface ready to attempt to defend themselves as they readied to fly into the Grimm infested skies above District 12.

From his airship Ironwood stared at a clock on the wall counting down to when the joint bombardment was to take place…. With only ten seconds to go he picked up his head set. And held it to his mouth.

The very second the appointed hour he spoke a single word into his headset, the same word his Vale counterpart was saying to his own forces.

"Strike!"

* * *

"Fire and death" are the only words the gathered Huntsmen could describe what they were seeing as, Jaune stood with the joint members of his and Ruby's teams as they watched the joint forces of Vale and Atlas pour fire into the district in an effort to devastate the Grimm forces back to a manageable number.

It is something to be said for never having grown up in an age where war between the kingdoms was a looming threat, but seeing entire blocks go up in a flash of heat and fire from a deployed bomb or a Lance from a ship mounted dust beam cannon. Nearby they would see bombers and fighters desperately fending off airborne Grimm with mixed success. The Flak cannons mounted on the distinct walls and seeded through out the city tried their best to support them. But the loss of bombers was an expected reality of the situation.

Jaune finally took a moment to speak his surviving teammates. "Okay, so once the bombardment we go back in, I know were all sore and tired, but we rush the breach and collapse it. We do that and we end this battle."

"This is insanity, the district will still be burning when we go back into it. We won't even have any choke points to funnel Grimm through now that the area has been blasted flat!" Blake shouted back.

"If a part of the district is on fire, were less likely to see Grimm in it." Jaune said as the thundering pounding of explosions rang out behind him. Jaune turned in time to see a flash of light erase one of the taller standing buildings in the district. "Projections state that roughly eighty five percent of the Grimm will be eradicated in the bombardment, that still leaves several thousand in the district." Jaune turned back to his team "We can do this, we took out what feels like many yesterday."

Weiss turned and saw Ruby's team going through a similar briefing. "If we were better prepared… Maybe we could have prevented this…"

"We can't dwell on the 'What if's' Weiss." Jaune said as he put a hand on her shoulder. "Remember, the others might be fighting for Vale, But we fight for Yang!"

Weiss and Blake's faced shifted to looks of determination. Blake in particular spoke up "Right, We'll make those bastards pay for what they did to her."

Jaune set his scroll on the table. "Okay so all teams are breaking up for assigned roles, originally they wanted us to stay in reserve due to how hard we got pushed yesterday. But I got the impression that neither of you would want that. Since Cardin's team was decimated were taking on their role today."

"Which is?" Weiss asked.

Jaune spoke as he pointed laid out the facts on his scroll. "Were going to with Ruby's team spearhead the assault on the District with Vale army. Team's SSSN and CFVY are going to cover our flanks the best they can. But with teams NDGO being completely wiped out as well as

teams BRNZ and ABRN being out of the fight due to injuries, were not working with a lot on the Huntsmen front."

"So the plan is to the Army is going to push us up to the breach and then what, our four surviving teams are going to seal the breach." Weiss asked.

"With high explosive satchel charges laid out inside of the tunnel itself." Jaune said.

"This is insane… so much could go wrong here." Blake added as the ears on top of her dropped low.

"We can do this, I promise you." Jaune said to Blake.

As they listened, they heard the sounds of the bombardment began to slow as the radio calls started to come in.

"Bomber wings reporting all payloads dropped, casualties lower than expected and are returning."

"Allotted munitions for wall howitzers are empty, waiting on restocking from support teams."

"Airship Dust batteries are on cool down, wait 5 for recharge and barrel cooling."

"The 9th, 10th and 12th armored battalions are ready to begin advance along side Alpha teams 'Hammer' and 'sword'"

"Atlas 3rd mechanized company is ready with 500 infantry men and 200 knights."

Jaune turned and looked at his teammates as the radio chatter began to keep ringing out. "I know I'm not the best leader you could ask for, that's clear to me now. But we will make it through all of this. We watch each others backs, and try to not walk into any obvious ambushes, and just do our part until we get to the breach."

Weiss gave Jaune a kiss on the cheek "We both believe in you…"

Jaune reached over and adjusted the straps on Yang's gauntlet and picked up his various weapons. His own personal Katar gauntlet, Issac's whip, and the sword given to him by Ozpin.

As he strapped on his battled and dented Iron chest plate he looked over as Weiss was loading up extra cylinders and packing extra vials of dust. Blake was pocketing extra magazines for her own weapon as well as some "borrowed" hand grenades.

As the three walked and linked up with Ruby's team who had all finished their prep work Jaune fist bumped Ruby with the half of Ember celica he wore, Ruby also bumped fists with the gauntlet owned by her late sister on her arm.

As they met up with the Vale companies they were embedding into they waited. In mere minutes the sun would crest over the horizon and they would push through the gates and try to blitz directly to the breach to seal it.

As the light of the sun. the pleasant female voice Jaune heard yesterday started to play out over the speakers nearby. "Soldiers and Huntsmen of the Vale and Atlas collation force. Once the gates open the hardest battle of your lives will begin. We will push the Grimm back with everything we have. You fight for the lives of the hundreds of thousands of citizens of Vale that depend on you all now. Fight on, and remember Vale endures!"

With those words the gates began to open.

* * *

 **So I have a a bit of a narrative crush on any show, film or anime that goes into details into the logistics behind the cool shit happening on screen. Like when they spent half an episode of Evangelion explaining how they had to procure a prototype canon, negotiate the logistics of tapping into a national power gird to fire it. and then use it. Man that gives me chills. Not only does it show the work that goes into fueling a massive positron sniper canon, but it also shows what all those side characters do every damn day. It also goes to show the scale of a situation the hero's are facing.**

 **Oh sure you can tell us that "We had to tap resources from all over Japan to power this weapon" Or you can show me work crews running wires from junction stations. Men in vehicles and news broadcasts about the nationwide blackout it would cause. Showing is always better than telling, and that's why this entire chapter is one big show of the logistics behind the battle that kicks off next chapter.**

 **if I keep crunching planed chapters I might be able to finish the current arc in about 3 to 4 chapters. I guess we'll see how it goes considering I'm rather bad at estimating the number of chapters something should take. hell I thought i'd be writing volume four by now..**

 **Anyways, as always, thanks for reading, and i'll see you all next time.**


	55. Chapter 55

The still-living members of Jaune's team, linked up with a full company of Vale infantry and Ruby's team walked as the "Spearhead" of the Vale Assault force through the blasted and bombed wasteland that is Vale's District 12.

After twelve straight hours of bombardments from everything from bombers, dust lasers, motors and heavy artillery, very little remained of the district. There were a handful of buildings scattered here and there but nothing that would be considered livable.

But as the strike force-marched through Vale, they strangely found it largely empty of Grimm.

Weiss spoke up about it first. "Am I the only one finding this incredibly weird that we don't see any Grimm in the district? They couldn't have blown up that many overnight could they?"

Pyrrha looked around noticing that it was far to quiet. "I agree, we should have seen something by now…"

Jaune's eyes darted around. "This is stupid! We're almost into the middle of the district" Jaune drew out his sword as Weiss drew out her rapier and Blake drew out her own gun. Jaune continued speaking "Everyone keep a close eye out, this screams ambush."

As the battle force continued to march forth soldier's raised weapons and went on alert but most of them were scoffing. One of them even shouted out "Come off it sir, this is the Grimm we are talking about. They don't plan ambushes like this right?"

Ren chimed in "Pipe down, the last thing we should be doing this deep into the district is underestimating the Grimm"

Nora was listening to radio chatter from the flanking forces "We don't have anything from the flanks, and our scouts are not reporting anything."

Jaune scoffed "No, something is not right here. The Grimm are smart, smarter than we give them credit for. I doubt they would have fled completely from the city over a bombardment."

"Maybe you're giving them too much credit Jaune?" Ruby spoke up. "I don't know about you but I don't know a soul that would want to stick around after what we did to the area overnight."

Jaune shook his head "Maybe, but we know they have a Grimmcaller somewhere around here as well right?"

Blake spoke up as she tried to use her superior hearing to listen for anything in the area. "Yeah Weiss and I know that for a fact."

Jaune was about to say something when a desperate call came out over the radio "Contact to our rear! Grimm are coming out of the god damn sewers and standing structures!"

The Officer in charge of the Vale assault force cried out "All forces, brace for attack!" As his men started to order his men to form up into a defensive circle. Once he was satisfied he called out. "Flanking teams, what's your status!"

* * *

"Oh Gods…" Ozpin said as he looked at the district map as a flood of red dots, each representing Grimm movement started had begun to swarm out from the ruins and rubble of the district in massive numbers. "The assault force needs to retreat now or they will be cut off!"

Glynda and port watched the map as Ozpin picked up a scroll and dialed to the direct line to the other commanders "This is Ozpin, pull them back or were going to lose every last soldier and Huntsman in the strike force!"

A voice shouted out over the radio "We can not comply, we have an overwhelming number of Grimm between us and the strike force!" A frantic sounding feminate voice cried back.

"James, do you have options on your end to assist?" Ozpin said into his headset.

"Negative, my forces are tied up with airborne Grimm, I thought we wiped these damn things out but So many just entered the area that we are being at risk of being pushed out of Vale airspace!" Ironwood said back through the scroll.

"We can't leave them to die, we have four teams of students down there Ozpin!" Glynda said.

* * *

Neptune and Sun stood back to back, firing weapons at the Grimm, they knew they were the only force holding off the Grimm horde as they desperately tried to retreat with their Vale army allies back to the main strike force. As Neptune watched Scarlet and Sage cleaving down Grimm with their cutlass and two-handed swords respectively. He and Sun laid down fire to try and allow their friends to fall back.

At least that's what Sun thought the goal was, Neptune had another idea in mind recalling a conversation he had the prior evening with the woman he charitably called a "Fuck buddy" when he wasn't taking orders from Julius directly.

Neptune recalled his conversation with Cinder...

" _Julius contacted me, we need to shed some weight from the school to make our plans work out," he recalled Cinder saying._

" _And what role does Julius need me to perform," Neptune recalled asking enthralled but the nude form of his part-time lover and partner in crime._

" _Just make sure you come back with fewer teammates than you go into battle with," he remembered Cinder ordering him._

Snapping back to reality as he was picking off Grimm that got close, he had a fiendish plan pop into his head. " _It's risky but I just need one of them to close the gap with me…"_ Neptune though seeing a Beowolf the others didn't catch rushing directly into their flanks.

Neptune smiled as he Beowolf leapt onto him knocking him off his feet and biting into his arm. Neptune grimaced in pain as he tried to shoot the Beowolf off only for Sun to swat it off of him with his nunchucks. Neptune cried out in pain as looked down on his bleeding arm. His cries were half genuine and half for show to distract the front line fighters.

Scarlet turned his head to face Nep and Sun after popping the head off a Grimm his flintlock "Dude Nep! Are you o-" Scarlet was swiftly interrupted as a fast-moving Griffon Swept down and slammed into Scarlets side with his claws shattering through his aura and knocking him on his ass with a bloody tear in his side.

"Neptune, you need to pull back out and warn the others, do it!" Sun shouted out to Neptune pointing in the direction of the front line force. "Were only going to be able to hold them off for at most a few moments!"

As Neptune started to step back he noticed a dead soldier's flare gun. He calmly picked it up and recalled the purpose of the flare gun as being a last resort call for an immediate bombardment of the area in case they the flank was about to fall to the Grimm As he fell back he fired it off into the air behind the line.

Sun turned towards the flare as it shot up into the sky "Oh… Oh, no…." Before he turned to where Neptune was standing to see him long gone.

As Sage called out to Sun, the words would be lost on Sun at that moment. Which was a shame, they were Sages final words….

As the whistling sound of incoming mortar rounds could be heard faintly in Sun's ears he could only think " _Nep… what have you done…"_

* * *

The student board tracking the fielded huntsmen in the field flashed as two students names dropped from yellow to red instantly. Ozpin read off the names to the room. "Scarlet David, and Sage Ayana have both died…" he also noted that Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias's scrolls also went offline at the same time.

"Were getting an update from the Vale command, they confirmed the Flank that team SSSN was working with just fired a flare off, they must have been on the verge of being overwhelmed completely," Port said to Ozpin. "They send their regrets for any huntsmen that fell just now."

Ozpin just sat down in his chair. "Just keep me informed Port," he said as he leaned forward in his seat…

* * *

On the other side of the battle, Team CFVY was also having a terrible time of the fighting. Velvet was currently mimicking a soldier's heavy machine gun and firing off a withering hail of fire next to coco as they tried to lay down a torrent of death in the direction of the Grimm as they flooded through a choke point. but they found that they were having little luck in the fight.

They didn't stand alone however, Coco was a skilled leader after all and had directed soldiers to aid in their fighting withdrawal. It seemed that for every one Grimm that went down, two more took their place on the battlefield.

"We can't hold them off forever!" Coco shouted out, "We need to pull back to link up with Jaune and Ruby's teams!"

Fox shouted into the radio "Jaune, what's the status of the main force!"

"Situation is degrading, we can not advance, the Grimm are everywhere!" Fox would hear the voice of Nora shouted back. "Jaune and Ruby are calling everyone back to us so we can form a circle defense!"

Velvet looked worried, she heard the Mortar strikes from the direction of the other flank just now and worried about team SSSN who was in the area. "We'll see what we can do!"

The soldiers broke into a rout first, the Grimm's numbers just became too overwhelming for them and most of them were Green. Many of them were just overwhelmed by the Grimm as they tried to run and were torn apart for their trouble.

Yatsuhashi cried out "We need to fall back! We can't hold this position any longer!" As a Grimm pounced on him only to be cut down by his massive two-handed sword.

Coco called out "Tactical withdrawal! Yat and Velvet fallback two blocks while Fox and I cover your withdrawal than cover us!"

Velvet nodded, she hated the idea of leaving half her team alone like this but understood why. "Just be right behind us Coco!"

As Velvet and Yatsuhashi fell back taking out Grimm as they fled with Coco And Fox covered them. Coco and Fox then resumed their own desperate battle as they Gunned and cut down Grimm by the Dozens.

It wasn't enough.

As Fox fought on he was jumped by Pack of seven Beowolfs that rushed from all directions Coco was forced to try and half faith in her teammate as she was fending off the bulk of the force with here Mini-gun.

Fox shot the one that was coming from directly ahead, as well as the one coming from his right. He spun and slicked the throat of a third Beowolf.

Fox, however, couldn't stop them all, one Came in low and clamped down on his leg knocking him off his feet as his aura struggled to keep his leg intact as it stood up to its full height with Fox dangling inside of its mouth.

"Fox!" Coco Said as she shouted out for her teammate turning the Mini-gun on the Grim for a single Fatal second. The Grimm had lifted the screaming Fox up by his leg and as the withering fire shredded the body of the Grimm, in a last act of defiance it snapped its Jaws shut taking Fox's right leg off just before the Knee.

Coco Fought her way to Fox as he laid on the ground screaming out in agony from his now lost leg. She desperately tried to hold off the Grim alone and drag Fox back to where Velvet and Yatsuhashi had fallen back to.

She realized though she wouldn't make it. She shouted into her team's com line. "Fox is down, Velvet, I want you and Yatsuhashi to just run. We won't make it!"

Two blocks back Velvet now mimicking Yatsuhashi's massive blade as she and the heavy sword fighter fought back to back cutting down Grimm cried back. "Stay put, we can make it back to you and get Fox out!"

Coco swept her Mini-gun through the ranks dropping five or six more Grimm in the process. As she spared a glance at Fox, she was met with a fixed stare that told her all she needed to know. "Fox is dead and I'm the only thing holding back the damn Grimm, I'm ordering you two to run!"

Velvet's heart sank as she wavered for a moment in her fighting, the moment of distraction was almost all the Grimm needed to take her out. Velvet didn't see the Porcupine like Grimm that had just fired several Needle-like lances at her.

It was all Yatsuhashi could to throw himself in between Velvet and the Grimm that was about to kill her.

Velvet Screamed "Yat!" as she saw her teammate skewered by several short spear sized needles in his chest and sword arm.

As Yatsuhashi staggered back still swinging with one arm, he shouted out "Velvet! Run! Get to the other teams in the strike force!"

Velvet protested as tears filled her eyes. "I am not leaving you!" as she cleaved through several Grimm.

Yatsuhashi screamed back "I'm not giving you a say in the matter, that Grimm's needles are poisoned. I'm screwed already!" he locked eyes with Velvet as he felt the poison numbing the areas on his body where he was struck. "Live on for us… Please"

Velvet looked like she wanted to protest but she felt Yatsuhashi's strong arm grab on to her and toss her back away from him as the Grimm swarmed in for the kill. "Run Gods dammit, make this count for something!"

Meanwhile, Coco's Mini-gun was clicking in a way that alerted Coco that she was almost out of ammo. "Velvet listen to Yat, We all love you as a sister, but were both done for. You need to run so our team won't be forgotten. Tell our stories baby bun!"

Velvet locked eyes with Yat and shouted out an anguished sob "I love you all! I'm sorry!" as she turned and started to run.

Yat Smiled as he cut down the hated Grimm that surrounded him until the last of his strength left him and the Grimm swarmed him in mass to finish him off a couple of minutes later.

At the same time, the last of Coco's ammo supply ran dry as the Minigun's now almost melting barrels spun impotently at the Grimm who quickly dragged her down as they piled on top of her.

Back at Beacon. A Stoic looking Ozpin looked on at the student board as Yatsuhashi and Coco's vitals signs flat-lined and their names shifted from yellow to red.

"We just lost Fox Alistair, Coco Adel and Yatsuhashi Daichi to the Grimm" Ozpin said with a wavering voice as Glynda was openly sobbing off to his side.

"Damn those Grimm…" Port said.

"We need to have faith now in the remaining teams to complete the mission," Ozpin said.

"The Grimm are swarming them as we speak," Port said pointing at the map. "They concentrated their numbers on the path back to the gates and the direct path leading to the breach." Port clenched his fists "They don't have the strength to break through either direction!"

Ozpin stared at the map "We have to have faith in our students now... We need to believe in the Port."

What Ozpin didn't say out loud was " _Otherwise Vale will fall…."_

* * *

 **Well, that was a Doozy of a chapter, and hopefully I didn't just lose half the reader base with this chapter. I know this has been a pretty heavy story arc and originally I wanted to consider giving both team's solo chapters, but at this point, I'm starting to feel like this Arc is going a little long, hell at this point it's practically its own book. So I'm taking the time to parse it down a bit and try to get the arc done in a few chapters so we can bring this volume to a close.**

 **Other than that, Writing has been a bit of a chore lately, other life things have made finding the time to just sit down and write for fun to be a bit of a challenge, so I hope you can excuse the slower than normal output from me.**

 **Other than that, as always, thanks again for reading and I hope you all have a great day.**


	56. Chapter 56

As Jaune Arc impaled a Beowolf on his sword he had to quickly assess the rapidly deteriorating situation at hand. The two combined teams of Ruby's and his own were being practically buried alive in Grimm, from all accounts the flanking teams had crumbled and even heavy bombardments of Mortar strikes were not able to thin the mass of them cutting them off from any form of retreat.

As Jaune sought out his next opponent as the screams and shouts of the soldiers and huntsmen around him he spotted Ruby as she seemed to effortlessly scythe any Grimm that came into her reach.

Jaune stepped towards Ruby and started to fight near her as he spoke "Ruby, I got an idea and you're going to hate this."

Ruby Fired off a shot from her rifle and took the head off of a nearby Ursa. "Alright, I don't like most of your plans but what do you got for me?"

Jaune paused and said, "Take command of my team, and hand me as many Satchel charges as you have so I can collapse the breach."

Ruby paused for a second as well before aiming up and putting a shot through the Wing of a rushing Gryphon that Jaune then took a moment to cleave through as it fell. Once that was done She turned and looked at him. "Your right I do hate that plan."

Jaune kicked a riffle up into his hands and shot at a Beowolf that was approaching Ruby from behind her catching it in the throat. Not a great shot considering he was aiming for its head but at least the Grim went down. Dropping the rifle to his side he spoke "Look, I know this looks insane, but someone has to get to the breach even if it's a one-way trip, hell we all kinda expected it to play out like this."

Ruby Shook her head "Dammit Jaune, suicide is not a combat plan!"

"Yeah, I know. But we need to seal that breach or else they will just keep coming, with some luck you guys can draw out the Grimcaller and take that thing down as well." Jaune said as his eyes darted around looking for Grimm that might be trying to take advantage of the situation. "If you all can manage that the Grimm will fall into disarray and you all can clean house on them from there."

Ruby nodded "I still hate this idea, but okay…" She said as she called the others over to make the exchange.

One by one the other Huntsmen handed Jaune their explosive satchel packs, one would be enough to collapse the tunnel the Grimm were coming from. Seven would be overkill. One by one they all rushed back to the fight after wishing Jaune luck in his plan, All except one.

"You are not going out there alone!" Weiss said in a stern tone. "I am not going to sit here and let my partner go out and die with our only tools for sealing the breach!"

Jaune started walking towards a makeshift stockpile of spare weapons and ammo they had formed in the center of their defensive circle and pulled out a handgun and several magazines. "I'm not in the mood to debate this right now Weiss, we both know that I can do this."

"Yeah, but we both know you're not going to make it back alive if you do go alone!" Weiss shouted back and Jaune.

Jaune looked into the angry eyes of Weiss and sighed "You need to survive, you more than any of us." Jaune eyes narrowed "You are meant for more than this battle, you know this."

Weiss shook her head. "I refuse! I refuse to carry out any 'Orders' that require me to let someone I love go off to their deaths without putting up the biggest stink I can over it," Weiss said before pausing for a moment. In a soft tone, she got close and whispered to Jaune "So it's like this. Your either going to allow me to go along, or I start telling everyone about the Fall maiden,"

Jaune paused and frowned "Fine, but you if you die…."

"You'll be right behind me telling me 'I told you so' I know," Weiss said with a slight smirk.

Jaune scoffed "Girl please, I was going to say 'I'm shacking up with Ruby'"

Weiss smiled, "You wouldn't dare sweetie." before she picked up her gunblade and started walking with Jaune, Jaune sent a message to Ozpin explaining the plan. He didn't wait for a reply.

* * *

Hours later Ruby and her team with the addition of Blake and Velvet who had linked up with them were doing everything they could to simply survive the onslaught, over the last few hours they turned what was once a market square into a heavily fortified fire-based thanks to the skilled ingenuity of the combined huntsmen and vale army force.

Ruby scanned the horizon, with a look of discontent, the grim stopped throwing themselves at them about 45 minutes ago, and she didn't know why. "Pyrrha do you see anything?"

Pyrrha was looking down the scope of a borrowed sniper rifle. "I'll see a Grimm poke it's head out every once in a while, or a couple look like they were about to charge in only to stop before we get clean shots on them!"

Ruby shook her head and asked no one in particular "What the heck are the Grimm playing at?"

She didn't have to wait long for an answer. Without warning the Grimm began the onslaught again, when they did the came in a frighteningly organized manner. Rather than strike from all directions, the struck from two massive assaults from opposite sides. Ruby was forced to quickly gauge the strengths of the two Grimm hordes rushing her at once. "Huntsmen focus your attack on the flank to the right, it looks smaller but they have stronger Grimm as part of it. Soldiers hold off the diversion force attacking our left."

Ruby and her team led the charge in with the other six Huntsmen as they began doing everything the could to beat back the Grimm wave. Propelling herself with her Crescent Rose she got the scythe blade around the waist of a charging Ursa that came in half, before spin cutting through a second and third Ursa.

The rest of her team was doing their part as well. Blake used the ribbon of her weapon to trip up a pair of beowolfs that she dispatched, one by slitting its throat with her scythe blade, the other by shooting it in the head with the gun portion of her weapon.

Ren was practically holding off half the force by himself as a growing circle of dissolving bodies were forming around him as he intricately stood in a circle of them targeting grim in a fill 360 arc around them expertly taking them down one by one at range, or slicing up any that got in range.

Pyrrha and Velvet fought back to back, Pyrrha with her shield and spear and Velvet copying her weapon as the covered the others flanks and took Grimm down by the dozens, all the while Pyrrha screamed encouragement to Velvet who was just not listening long since given in to a silent rage for all the friends she lost today. Pity to any Grimm that entered their range.

Nora was making what Ren would call a glorious mess of things as she switched repeatedly between crushing Grimm with her massive hammer and popping grenades off from her launcher to break up the large groups.

Ruby However you see the tide of the battle, they were not in any immediate danger of being overwhelmed but they knew it was only a matter of time before they ran out of ammo, or the Grimm got lucky. As she took two several more Grimm with a low spinning swing of her scythe her she thought "All we can do is hope that we can get some reinforcements soon…"

* * *

Ozpin from his office was starting to feel a rare feeling of desperation, one thing he despised was not being in control of a situation. Still feeling anger at the loss of so many students and citizens it was taking a considerable amount of his patience to not catch the next bullhead to Vale and sort the situation out himself.

Throughout the radio chatter, one message caught his attention "Sir we have word of somewhere between 40 and 80 citizens all armed converging on the District 12 main gates!"

"Turn that up!" Ozpin shouted out to Port who nodded and obliged.

The radio chimed a conversation with two unnamed Vale army soldiers. "Confirmed, armed citizens are marching towards the district 12 gates, what are our orders?"

"Detain them, no civilians are allowed into the district!" Another voice over the Radio shouted out.

"Civilians are trying to get in there and fight the Grimm?" Glynda asked. "The situation is not that desperate yet."

"I don't think that's what's happening here." Ozpin mused out to no one in particular.

* * *

"You all need to stop, the Grimm are incredibly dangerous and the situation is not contained!" A Young vale soldier shouted out.

The Civilian group, mostly armed with Hunting rifles and various makeshift weapons marched towards the soldiers without showing signs of slowing down marched at them ina disorganized formation.

The Young soldier was so transfixed on this that he almost didn't notice the Beowolf that have made it through the lines and was leaping at the young soldier. The young soldier managed to turn and bring his rifle up just in time to see the Beowolf be stopped in midair shimmering in a purple glow. Seconds later the Young soldier looked on horror watching the Grimm as it was crushed into a rapidly dissolving sphere. The soldier turned to see a Purple scaled Dust eater with a sword on his hip walking towards the soldier.

With a mighty bellow, he shouted out his order. "Dust Eaters, engage the Grimm, secure the gate!"

One by one the Gathered crowd of civilians Shifted into their dust eater states and walked past the soldiers to engage the Grimm directly. Some burned Grimm to death with fire, others hurled lances of Ice or crushed them with shards of rocks or earth.

"Who's your commander?" The purple-haired Dust Eater asked of the soldier as a second shorter teal haired female dust eater packing what looked like some kind of Hybrid of a pickaxe and a short barred M60 machine gun.

The Soldier just handed The Purple-haired Dust eater who his headset to speak into. "This is Hector Arc of the Dust Eater Militia, we have come to fight with Vale, where are we needed?"

Ignoring the chaos that erupted over the battle net largely from Atlas soldiers who was expressing shock that an entire Dust Eater Militia was operating in the area. Before one voice gave a proper reply. "This is James Ironwood of the Atlas armed forces, we have Vale soldiers and Huntsmen in need of assistance in the market square, that's where you are needed. Welcome to the battle."

Hector nodded to the soldier and shouted out "Dust eaters rally on me!" He shouted as the Militia reformed up around him. "We march to the center and liberate the forces trapped in the market square!"

The gather Militia shouted out a fierce some Warcry as the started to march out into the thick of it. Hector turned to the Teal haired Dust Eater. "Saphron, cut loose"

Saphron smiled as she shouldered her weapon and thrusted out her hands creating two walls of Hard Light. Satisfied with the number of Grim she had in between the two walls clapped her hands together causing the walls to slam into each other crushing the Grimm she had trapped in between the Hard light walls.

Hector declared as he drew his swords. "Dust Eaters, We march to war!" As his host began to fight its way into the district.

* * *

Meanwhile, deeper towards the district Jaune and Weiss were closing into the area of the breach, through sheer luck they managed to evade the worst of the Grimm hordes and within eyesight of the Breach itself.

Jaune turned towards Weiss and whispered, "You ready?"

Weiss nodded and said back "Yeah, let's get this done."

Just as Jaune was about to step out he was grabbed and pulled back by Weiss who whispered: "Wait, look!"

Jaune took a second to look at the direction she pointed and he saw it, the biggest threat in the district right now, the thing that turned what should have been a disorganized and easily destructive swarm of Grimm and turned it into the massive threat the Grimm was in the district.

He saw the Grimmcaller, standing over 7 feet tall, covered in bleached bone plates, fully humanoid, and with its left arm ending in a massive crab-like claw. Jaune gritted his teeth and said. "Change of plans, we kill that thing first!"

Weiss nodded in agreement and they both charged out at it together...

* * *

 **So this chapter was a real pain in my ass to write for several reasons, I mostly was going back forth at the idea of bringing the Dust Eaters into the fight worried that even in the relatively small role they play here, that they might come off as "Oh his OC's are coming to say the day lol"**

 **If I had them present from the get-go then I could see where that could come from, but as it stands they are coming in at the tail end of the battle, It's still going to be canon cast members doing the heavy lifting here after all.**

 **I guess I'm coming into this chapter with a rather negative mindset sure. But I do want to address people that are commenting saying this story arc is going to long. I guess I can say is, I'm sorry you feel that way but this is the moment that diverges this story from canon and I'm going to let it take as long as it damn well needs to. I did straight up say at the start of it that it was going to be a long arc, and it was going to see a good number of named deaths. I'm going to change that now that I'm at most a couple of chapters from the planned end of it. If you wanted a nice safe fic, well I'm sure there are other stories out there to fill your needs.**

 **As I said, I didn't really sit down with the greatest mindset when it came to writing it out so I hope it came out okay, but Hey, as always thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time.**


End file.
